International Cooperation, Trade & Security Cluster Media Briefing

[Note: Transcript of the media briefing was provided by the International Cooperation, Trade & Security Cluster]

Members of the media welcome you here to the ICTS Cluster. As you know we meet on a very regular basis in line with the request that have been made by yourself that we as Government should communicate more. We are meeting now after the President has indicated the road ahead in his State of the Nation Address to South Africa. And also followed very closely on that by the Budget Vote Speech by the Minister of Finance. We are here to report on what we have been able to do since the last time we met you and also to indicate what we are doing in line with the requirements of the President.

As you know the President gave his State of the Nation Address and made it very clear in no uncertain terms that it is infrastructure, and infrastructure, and infrastructure. Now we are going to contextualise our work in that infrastructure, infrastructure for ensuring that we can increase trade, infrastructure for ensuring that we are able to locate ourselves in a political infrastructure. It is convenient and compatible with our own goals and those of Africa and our own idea of what the African agenda should be. Infrastructure in relation to how we can promote good governance in the global structure, infrastructure in relation to a number of other things that we are required to respond to you today and in relation to which we are responsible.

As you know the world faces a confluence of immediate challenges and a wide range of areas such as a global economic and financial crisis. And happily as the Minister of Finance has indicated we are not as badly hit by the financial crunch as most countries. So we count ourselves lucky because we have the necessary infrastructure in our legislation to have weathered the greatest storm that most countries are unable to get out of. As a cluster we understand that the current international challenges calls however on countries including ourselves to work together to strengthen our corporation with multilateral institutions. It calls on us as South Africa to work together with other countries especially those countries that are in Africa that would require our assistance to ensure that together we are able to weather the storm.

We as a cluster are committed to the African agenda precisely because we understand that on our own that there will be no way that we would be able to make the kind of progress we would like to make. Our policy of foreign relations, our policy of International Corporation, and a policy that fine a line. This cluster is framed around the African agenda through the understanding that our feature is inextricably linked with that of the continent. We cannot sustain our hard won freedom, prosperity and everything else unless our neighbours are free and prosperous as well. That is the basis on which we work and we continue to work.

We have with us here a document which has been circulated I believe by now to you which forms a report back of the work that we have been able to do. I will go with you very quickly through most of what is contained in the document, the document you will be able to take with you home. The intention here is to allow you the space to interact very directly with us. So we will not be bogging you down with these documents, we are here to answer any questions that you have and we would like to avail ourselves for the  longest time possible for that kind of interaction. The document indicates how it is that we are hoping to consolidate the African agenda. It indicates what we have been able to do in that area, it indicates that we have been able to create the Heads of States and Government Orientation Committee of the African Union. It indicates how we are moving forward with our implementation of our NEPAD priorities. It indicates also that the NEPAD priority on infrastructure which is chaired by President Zuma is also one of those projects that we are pushing ahead. And as you know we appointed Minister Trevor Manuel to head this on behalf of South Africa and at the next meeting of the cluster we will invite him so that he can give us some kind of briefing on how far this matter is. If we talk about infrastructure for ourselves we also want to ensure that we can enhance infrastructure to promote trade, to promote relations with other countries on the sub-continent first and to promote and relations with countries on the continent.

This links to the regional integration, this was a matter that was very pubertal in the discussions of the SADC Summit in July last year. The bottom-line for the SADC Sub-continent is that we have to move on with this regional integration. Unless we put this pace and make sure that we can achieve the level of regional integration that we set ourselves to. We would not be able to carry out the level of trade that we set ourselves as a target. We want to deal in this particular session with SACU and the principals of trade negotiations which were negotiated and approved by the Summit in 2011. There is a steady movement in the work of industrialisation in SACU and thankfully Minister Rob Davies is here to take us through any issues on this matter.

 On the issue of global reform of Government institutions. As you know we have been very concerned about this matter. We can report now that we have made significant progress in three areas. Firstly in the World Bank, an additional executive director position has been created to represent three counties, i.e. South Africa, Nigeria, and Angola. This increases the voice of African states in the institution and we are very happy that we succeeded in pushing this particular agenda to this level. Secondly we would like to report that we contributed to the formulation of the G20 agreement on the reform of the International Monetary Fund in such a way as to promote the interests of sub-Saharan Africa. Thirdly South Africa has promoted trade and development objectives at the World Trade Organisation and defended the DOHA Round development mandate. Again Minister Rob Davies is here to respond to any issues around that. That we have done and we are managed to notch that up as one of our successes.

On the issue of trade and investment. We are implementing our export and investment promotion and facilitation policies. This has resulted in good progress in relation to raising exports to high value added products to target our economies and the economies of the sub-continent. And a comprehensive strategy of partnership has been concluded with China which gives greater market access to these products.

On the area of tourism we have done extremely well. The numbers that we have notched up for tourism in South Africa were indicated by the Minister of Home Affairs when she reported back to you. Because this is what they process and are able to quantify for us the number of people who come requiring visas or the number of people who come into South Africa that enter our ports of entry.

We want to report to you that we had a very successful COP17, thankfully Minister Edna Molewa is here and will be able to take us through that. It was so successful the President acknowledged the sterling work that was done by the Inter-ministerial Committee in this regard. We are now onto the phase of actually implementing the outcomes of the Durban UN Conference on Climate Change. We will deal with that in some debt with Minister Molewa.

We still have a lot of work that we would like to cover and this is spelt out in the document that you have in front of you. We still have some work to do in relation to SACU. It is the process of developing a regional framework for corporation on industrial development. In parallel SACU Council has also decided to identify 8 priority sectors or cross border collaboration on regional industrialisation. This includes clothing, textile, and apparel. It includes also agro-processing, mineral beneficiation, you would have heard a lot about mineral beneficiation in the Economics Cluster. You would have heard a lot about it also with the President laying particular emphasis on this matter in his State of the Nation Address. We also want to emphasise the matter of renewable energy, arts and crafts and a number of other priorities that we set ourselves. Again Rob Davies will be able to deal with that matter and the technical aspects of the work that is continuing.

We are preparing ourselves for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development which is Rio + 20. As part of their on-going engagement Government will convene a multi stakeholder engagement which will consist of workshops to solicit inputs from our stakeholders, from South African so that we have the South African package to put forward at that particular meeting. South Africa also has agreed to host bilateral meetings with like-minded countries so by the time we get to Rio + 20 we have a common approach to matters that will be put on the agenda of Rio + 20.

In so far as the United Nations Security Council, South Africa will utilise its election as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council to continue promoting better and deeper coordination and corporation between the United Nations Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council. And as you know last year was bogged down with a number of glitches and unhappy incidences. And we as the African continent felt that perhaps that we need to ensure that our voice is heard to ensure that our responsibilities are observed and respected. We are in a position to deal with our own problems, we need help, we will call out for help, and we are paying particular attention therefore to that particular corporation. This would mean that we would need to have an indebt assessment of our own capacity, fix our own house before we can insist on this particular transformation in our relations with other international bodies, Therefore we have decided to have a look at the AU Peace and Security Council and a draft strategy for South Africa’s engagement towards improving the AU Peacekeeping Council has been worked on. Between myself Deputy Minister Ibrahim there and Deputy Minister Marius Fransman we will be able to deal with this matter. We are improving the functioning of the early warning centre that is in the AU.

We are continuing with our peacekeeping missions. To date we have a full complement of support that we are providing between ourselves and the police to the Government of Sudan. We are also as the Defence sector involved in a number of missions which are listed there in front of you CORDITE, SENOKO, COPPER and Vimbesela. Our involvement is premised on our appreciation that South Africa has a pivotal role to play in Africa’s economic development. We cannot have any African development unless we have peace, security and sustainability for our economies. The South African Defence Force’s contribution to peace improves the lives of fellow Africans and also facilitates  South Africa’s access to develop new markets to that jointly with other African States we can create a better live for the people on the continent.

The South African Defence Force has embarked on a Maritime Strategy which has been adopted by the Heads of States which met in Angola in 2011 in July. This is now binding on all SADC members and we hope that this will be binding very soon on all African States., However we are apace with our own commitment, and we have just recently signed a trilateral agreement between ourselves, Tanzania and Mozambique. As we speak our ships are sailing the Indian Ocean, patrolling our seas, making sure that these three countries are safe and making sure that we are able to drive the Maritime Strategy of SADC from the front.

We are continuing to ensure that we can improve our global governance institutions so that they reflect that Africa is a continent that is able to look after itself. Regional trade, we go onto regional trade, I leave that to Minister Rob Davies to deal with. We are not going to be dealing in debt with the issue of international tourism and its growth because it has been dealt with. However should there be any questions here we will be in a position to respond to that.

We wanted to bring to your attention the issue of the SKA not because it falls within our cluster but because it is a very important initiative of the country that will have a bearing on our development. Especially as we go towards the finalisation of our bid to host the SKA Project. We are very hopeful that we will be able to host it in Africa; its benefits are enormous and will be able to numerate those in terms of financial benefits and in terms of job creation. I think I would like to leave this matter at that particular point. Our agenda as we have indicated is the creation of a better South Africa, a safer South Africa, a safer Africa, and a better Africa so that we can also contribute towards a better world. We have just been joined right now in Pretoria by the Minister of DIRCO who arrived from a foreign trip. So we have a full complement of the Ministers that are here able and poised to answer any questions that you might have. The documentation that has been prepared for you will be available in full together with any additional documents that have been prepared by the various Departments’ for your perusal and also as reference points as you right your stories. Thank you

Journalist: For Minister Rob Davies. There is a lot of talk about integration here in the statement, regional integration trade integration. But last month at the African Union they took a resolution to have built a pre-trade area by 2017. Yet here is nothing of mention in what you have told us here, Could you just tell us how your plans fit in with that? And then to the Minister of Defence, the ships patrolling the Coast of South Africa, Tanzania, and Mozambique, how many ships have we sent? Then there was a call by the chief of the navy reportedly that he wanted Durban Salisbury Island redeveloped. Is there any real plan to that?

Minister Rob Davies: Well thanks very much. As I think most of you would know the Tripartite Pre-Trade Area was launched last year. This is SADC, Comesa and East African community; this is more than half of the continent either in terms of the GDP or population. That project is on-going and in fact the negotiations are due to begin at official’s level very shortly. So the period of exchanging information is now over and the period of actually negotiating that FTA is beginning. As was mentioned the AU has now taken the next logical step which I think we also is the next logical step about saying what about the rest of the continent. And the proposal was put at the AU Summit in January of establishing a continental free-trade agreement. This would build on not replace the Tripartite FTA and the discussion of the date at the level of officials was that this should be an indicative date; this should not be a date which is cast in stone. In the actual discussion in the AU a number of participants, Heads of States made a point which is a point that we also strongly support that of cause that we cannot conceive of integration on the African continent as purely a matter of tariff negotiations. So even in the Tripartite we have built in the Infrastructure Development programme with the North South Corridor Programme mentioned by Minister Sisulu as being championed by our president and Minister Manuel as the point man on that. That is the main flagship Infrastructure Programme in the Tripartite; it is 80 something projects going from the middle of the continent through Zambia, Zimbabwe and eventually through Beitbridge and linking up with ports in South Africa. At the same time we also said within the Framework of Development Integration that some of the major barriers to promote an inter-regional trade have got to do with the ability to produce goods. Which actually are going to be able to sell on our markets not just the mining products that we export outside the region but actually goods which we can sell to each other? Therefore we need to corporate around the Industrial Development and that is a theme that has been carried over in many of our regional integration bodies from SACU right through to the Tripartite. And so the discussion to place about the Continental FTI a number of people said it has to be linked to that very programme of Infrastructure development on the rest of the continent and some sort of corporation around developing productive sectors. The discussion was then sent to the Heads of State of the different regional economic communities, there are 7 of them I believe. They will be meeting and they will be putting forward some sort of revised observations and proposals at the next AU Summit which is taking place in June in Malawi. Thanks

Journalist: To the Minister in DIRCO, can you just respond to the statement made by President Mugabe recently saying that he reserved the right to proceed with elections in Zimbabwe with or without the MDC. Don’t you think that can curtail the on-going negotiations and render the process again as futile as the past elections in Zimbabwe? He also stated that he might not welcome President Zuma, is it a personal problem between President Zuma as a person and President Zuma that this process doesn’t move forward as speedily or as effective as everyone has anticipated.

Journalist: First question to Deputy Minister Fransman regarding Madagascar and the deadline for the amnesty rules coming up at the end of the month, just on progress regarding that. To Minister Sisulu as the Minister in charge of former President Mandela’s health if there is anything you can tell us on how he is doing today and how his health is at the moment.

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu: Yes the question is in response to our commitment to the Maritime Strategy. Last week we had one of the first of its kind, a SADC Summit of the chiefs of the navies, of SADC to look at how we are going to operationalize and implement the strategy. It is in that context that the conference had proposed that perhaps we should move our operations to the Island of Salisbury. The decision that we had taken as the South African Government was that we were going to reopen our basis in Durban, You would remember that as a cost cutting exercise we closed our operations on the coast of Durban and moved them and concentrated all our operations in Simonstown. That was before we became involved in operations that intend to deter piracy. Now that we have adopted it as a strategy of Government and in SADC we had to restructure the way deployed around South Africa. The main problem we are experiencing right now is the Indian Ocean, it would not make sense to operate from Simonstown to try and deter piracy on the Indian Ocean. It would seem to me that in the discussions ensued at that particular conference that they would have come up with the Island of Salisbury as the more ideal than the original preference that we expressed as that of the Durban Naval Base.

How many ships have we deployed, so far we have one which is the Battle of San (sic)? We do intend to start small because it is going to be a very costly and very huge exercise but we have SANRANA out there. We are supported also by a number of aircrafts, helicopters on board there. We are supported also by ground troops and we are going to scale up as and when the assess the threat and as and when Minister of Finance smiles on our responsibilities.

Journalist: Has any costing been done and infrastructure needs?

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu: No this would have come out of the conference that just ended about two days ago. So this was the closing speech of the chair who was Admiral Madini as part of the resolutions which they are then going to bring to our attention as resolutions of that particular conference. We will then be able to make an assessment on how much it will cost us and whether or not it is affordable but that is the recommendation of the conference.

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane: The relationship between South Africa and Zimbabwe remains cordial; President Zuma remains the facilitator for the full implementation of the global, political agreement signed by Zimbabweans which gave life to the current government the coalition government that is leading Zimbabwe at the moment. SADC remains involved in the political situation in Zimbabwe while President Zuma continues to facilitate. The final conclusion of the implementation of the global political agreement in Zimbabwe rests in the hands of the Zimbabweans who have signed the GPA themselves. In the GPA and the document signed by all the interlocutors who form part of this current government they have undertaken that they will draft a new constitution the constitution will be taken through a process that will lead to the referendum and adoption of the constitution of thereof and that will be followed by elections. So I am confirming the statement that was issued by SADC executive secretary. Thank you.

Minister Marius Fransman: SADC met in February and was therefore a recommitment that we need to see progress on the implementation of the roadmap come the 29^th of February. We however realised that in the last three weeks we had a very big cyclonic effect in that country and for two weeks the networks in the country were down and problems were experienced in terms of the implementation thereof of the roadmap. The South African government has decided to give some form of humanitarian support as well and we are helping with that process. On the deadline itself the 29^th of February we want to see progress even though we understand there was this disaster in the country but we have see progress. We have seen progress until December with the appointment of the Prime Minister and the Government what is remaining is the issue of Article 20 in the context of the return of the former president that must be affected. We will be however get a report on the 29^th of February on progress made and all the areas that include for example the issue of amnesty and efforts towards normalisation and we will only then make the assessment on the 29^th of February after we get the report from our SADC office which is now effective in that country. We recently had discussions with the EU, discussions with SADC secretariat level and we are quite hopeful that the lock-jam that were there over the last month and a half that we have overcome that. We are calling on all the parties in Madagascar to make sure that they honour the implementation of the latter in the spirit of that road map. We also call on especially the two leaders that is outside of the process especially not anything relating to inciting their support base because that in the fragile environment will create further problems. Thank you very much.

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu: On former president Nelson Mandela, there never was anything wrong with him and the reason why we took him to hospital was because he did have an ongoing discomfort and on a regular basis when you attend to somebody you want to improve the condition of that particular person. The only way we could finally get to the bottom of this is by taking him to hospital and having a number of tests to find out if in fact what was prescribed was working and if we could not make it any better. That is what we did and that is what we would do on a regular basis as and when we treat him so there never was anything wrong with him. He is okay and in fact I looked at some of the pictures that are in the newspaper today and I wish that you have had his most recent picture, he looks very healthy, handsome, and he is fine. He had to go investigative surgery so that we know that the treatment we are giving him is fine.

Journalist:  Sorry your last comment, investigative surgery because there has been a lot of rumours over whether he did have a surgery or an operation. Are you confirming that he did have surgery or is it tests?

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu: He had laparoscopy, investigative laparoscopy. I am not sure what the medical terminology is but it is investigative and it is not the kind of surgery that you would think about it is non-evasive but it is investigative. So it wasn’t the surgery that has been out there in the media at all. He is fine and his recovering from the anaesthetic and his fine as can be at his age. Sorry I have a doctor here and his actually indicating what it is that was done it is diagnostic laparoscopy it means that you actually look into that particular area to diagnose what the problem is and most women would have had diagnostic laparoscopy.

Journalist: I want to know from the Minister if his likely to be out of hospital today or tomorrow? Do you know?

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu: He is well so if we had it our way he would be out of hospital today as soon as he has recovered from the diagnostic laparoscopy. The details we would like you to find a way of respecting his space. So we would not be divulging so that we are able to take him home and he is able to live a life such as you and I. We can’t have a man who spent the better part of his life as a prisoner being a prisoner of society as well. However we have arranged with the media, me and the Minister in the Presidency to have a discussion with the media on how we deal with these matters as and when they continue. So that we are able to communicate with you and you are able to provide the necessary respect to the family and to the man because it is absolutely necessary. If we had it our way he would be home by now because his fine.

Journalist: Minister Sisulu perhaps this comes to you on pg4 you talk about the concept idea South African Development Partnership Agent. Can you perhaps elaborate what this entail and what it seeks to achieve?

Journalist: Minister can you give us an update on the problem on piracy on our coasts.

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu: May I make a suggestion you know I skimmed through this document and I indicated to you that we would have a little input from the Minister of DIRCO and Minister of Environmental Affairs on COP17 because this is a major achievement. Perhaps we might ask the Minister of DIRCO to give us an update on our position which was articulated by the President in SONA on our candidate for the AU. Then we will come back to the issue that has been asked about what SADPA means and Minister of DIRCO would be able to explain that.

REMARKS BY MINISTER MAITE NKOANA-MASHABANE

Thanks Minister Sisulu. As you rightfully said after a year of intensive negotiations the final outcome in Durban UN Conference on Climate Change produced an agreement that not only advanced the global effort that was needed there to address the global climate change crisis but also set a new long-term pathway for the development of a fair and legally binding future of multi-lateral and rule based global climate change system which can balance climate and development imperatives. It ensures the fair participation of all countries both developed and developing. The package adopted in Durban popularly known as the Durban platform of action includes the; Green Climate Fund; Adaptation Committee; Co-ordination and adaptation actions on a global scale which is very useful for developing countries generally but for African countries in particular. These are some of the things that African leadership demanded of COP17 before we sat at the meeting. The technology mechanisms all of this they adopted and to be in operation this year. May I hasten Minister Sisulu to remind the media and other member states that there is a need for African states to start thinking of who should become board members of the Green Climate Fund because the first meeting will take place by the 30^th of April? In Durban an agreement was reached on a future legal climate change regime applicable to all parties by 2015 by this we also saved the Kyoto Protocol but we still have to finalise whether the extension is five or eight days and this debate will be concluded very soon. Minister Molewa would go into how we linked the successes of Durban to our preparations for Rio+20 linking that with the Johannesburg Summit of Sustainability that took place 10 years ago. But also to remind the media that President Zuma has been the co-chair of a panel on global sustainability as appointed by the secretary general of the UN. One of the successes of our Presidency of the UN Security Council was the passing of resolution 2033 presented by South Africa which emanated from the discussions of the Peace and Security Council which emphasises on the strategic coherence, co-ordination of work between the UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council which will bring me to the point which was raised on how are we dealing with piracy. I also was attending the meeting this week in London which was co-hosted by AU Peace and Security Council members that was looking at the totality of how we should work together with the people of Somalia and the whole of Africa to return Somalia to constitutional normalcy, security, law and order and development. We want to look at how to resolve the problems of Somalia work with the people to resolve their political problems but also how we continue to work with them on supporting them with humanitarian aid. As much as the UN has now declared that famine has been won there is still a need for 2 million people to be supported through humanitarian aid. South Africa also made a pronouncement there that we will be dispersing not just money but services and support to the tune of 10 million pounds in the liberated areas and zones in Somalia.

What is SADPA, South African Development Partnership Agency which we as DIRCO have been mandated to establish, we will collapse the African Renaissance Fund into SADPA. South Africa and its foreign policy emphasis cooperation and collaboration against competition and because of the effort and the work we have been doing on stabilisation of the continent but also the interventions that I have just mentioned. We needed to have an agency that is able to respond on political issues but largely on security and humanitarian aid using this SADPA. How far are we with the establishment of this, the draft bill for SADPA has been finalised for presentation to cabinet for approval before being published in the gazette for public comments. I hope I have answered all the questions. The question on the candidate of Doctor Dlamini-Zuma. SADC and Foreign Affairs met again in South Africa on the 11^th and 12^th of February to review the work of the AU Summit as mandated by their heads of states and government and they re-endorsed the name of the candidate of Minister Dlamini-Zuma as the candidate of our region as and when the summit takes place towards the end of June. The details and the reasoning behind this are well-known but we will keep South Africa informed of all those details. I thank you.

REMARKS BY MINISTER EDNA MOLEWA

Thank you very much Minister. I think I will be very brief indeed just too once again echo the sentiments by yourself and Minister of DIRCO that indeed COP17 was a great success. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank South Africans for the work well done from all walks of life. Be it from the media to ordinary civilians and society you did well in terms of ensuring that we deliver this successful conference. Now we are required to implement the Durban outcomes there are two areas of work that we are going to be doing which is the area that concerns local implementation of our programs. Locally as you know South Africa will have to continue with what we showcased as legacy project by going into the green economy ensuring that we cut carbon emissions by the required amount as stated by President Zuma when he laid out the statement on Copenhagen three years ago. That work will account to another cluster which is the Economic and Infrastructure Cluster but with regards to this cluster and international level obviously working with DIRCO at all times we will continue to ensure that this great success registered at Durban does not, we don’t take two steps backwards in COP18. So we need to ensure that COP17 becomes a success, what we are going to be doing, the Green Climate Fund that is already set up. We need to ensure that the Green Climate Fund actually becomes functional but we believe that South Africa has got to use its presidency this year to steer this process under DIRCO to ensure that the work program that has to be done up until December in COP18 is actually sustained. But also that the beginning of the new negotiations on the long-term agreement that is taking effect from the 2015 and implementable 2020, that work is also sustained and become effective. Again we will rally the whole world around, working with the partners ensuring that the program is a success. Thank you very much.

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu: On the last matter that has been asked which is the issue of piracy? Piracy continues to be a threat to world trade it has been estimated at the last count two years ago by the International Maritime Bureau that piracy cost between R1bn and R16bn a year. In the last year alone we have had 17 acts of piracy on Tanzania these are acts that we were actually able to count and enumerate. The reason why piracy is unacceptable for us is because it has begun to encroach on our waters which we have responsibilities over. It is quite clear to us that as the international community clamps down on the horn of Africa piracy has been pushed down because there is a possibility in their minds that it is easier to operate within our areas. The president spelt out for South Africa what is required to boost maritime trade you know because of the history of the continent, 91% of our trade is carried through the sea so the sea is a very important part of our work. Africa’s downstream oil consists of 44 refineries in 25 countries this is a matter we have become aware that it needs to be protected therefore we need to put our best foot out there to make sure that we put a line between piracy and that we are responsible for which is SADC waters. We are therefore deploying ourselves more as a deterrent force than as a reactive force but it continues to be a serious problem.

Journalist: Minister the Defence Budget wasn’t really increased a lot this year. How are you going to get the budget to fund this? I mean keeping a ship out as a deterrent is an expensive exercise. So what is going to be done about this?

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu: You asked whether we had begun to put an estimate to the budget that would be required for instance changing our naval base to the Island of Salisbury and my answer was no. We would have to find money somewhere not much money was given to defence not much money has ever been given to defence and we are the first place from which money is looted to be given to other more deserving cases. We are hoping that as we put across the plight of our resources it would be possible to get a more sympathetic response from those people who allocates the budget. We will be requesting a 2% of the GDP for defence as a basic minimum our responsibilities are far greater than the amount of money given to us. We deployed around the coast, around our borders and we are just not making it. For the time being what we are hoping to do is to perhaps have an inter-ministerial committee on those ministries that will benefit from our maritime responsibilities. Thank you.

Briefing ends

International Cooperation, Trade & Security Cluster (ICTS) Media Briefing

26 FEBRUARY 2012