Draft Committee Programme & Minutes: adoption

Meeting report

FOREIGN AFFAIRS PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
2 April 2003
DRAFT COMMITTEE PROGRAMME & MINUTES: ADOPTION

Chairperson: Dr P Jordan.

Documents handed out:
Draft Committee Programme

SUMMARY
The Committee adopted the minutes with some technical amendments. The Committee Programme for April 2003 was adopted.

MINUTES
The Chairperson outlined the purpose of the meeting and introduced various minutes for the Committee's adoption. The Committee adopted the minutes of the meeting on Briefing by Zimbabwean Consul-General Mr G Dvirairo, held on the 29 January 2003 without any amendments.

The Committee also adopted the following minutes with amendments:
Minutes on Briefing by British High Commissioner: Ms Ann Grant.
In terms of the last paragraph of the minute of the aforementioned briefing "… members recommended that both the UK and the USA were too belligerent in their attitude towards Iraq". Some members of the Committee voiced a concern that the sentence did not reflect the true views of the members who were present during the briefing. Dr P Mulder (FF) suggested that the sentence be amended to indicate that it was the majority and not all of the members who held the view reflected in the sentence.
The Committee adopted the minute as amended.

Minutes on Briefing by the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Iraq.
The last paragraph of the minute said " in his closing remarks the chairperson noted that every effort needed to be made to stop the war and that Iraq should comply". Dr B Geldenhuys (NNP) noted that the sentence was misleading. The feeling was that the sentence seemed to suggest that when effort was put on stopping the war Iraq should comply with the efforts and stop the war. Dr Geldenhuys said that the sentence should make it clear that Iraq should comply with UN resolution. Basically the sentence stays as it was except that the words " with UN resolutions" were added at the end.
The Committee adopted the minute as amended.

Minutes on Briefing by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs on Sahrawi Republic and Morocco.
Some members opined that the last paragraph of the minute was badly constructed. The sentence said "he (Deputy Minister) further explained that the Arab Magreb Union had not taken off because of this problem, and unfortunately, this was important for the success of NEPAD as it depended on the functioning of regional groups". The Committee amended the paragraph to read that: " he further explained that the Arab Magreb Union had not taken off because of this problem. The resolution of the problem was important for the success of NEPAD as it depended on the functioning of regional groups".
The minute was adopted as amended.

Minute on Briefing by Zimbabwean Church Leaders on Zimbabwean situation.
The minute was adopted as it was except that the correct spelling of Obasanjo was used.

Draft Committee Programme
The Committee adopted a programme of action for 2003-4. The following headings were added to the programme by members.

-Briefing by the Department of Foreign affairs on the situation on Burundi.
-Briefing by the US Embassy on policies around Iraq and the Post war situation.
-Briefing by the Department of Trade and Industry on what it was doing to expand and diversify foreign markets that south Africa had access to.
It was also suggested that the Committee should also look at the role and strengthening of multilateral institutions given the US attitude towards multilateralism.

The committee agreed to hold a number of seminars which would deal with issues concerning the AU and NEPAD and the reforming of the UN and other multilateral institutions.

With regard to written instruments referred to the Committee, it was agreed, following a suggestion from the ANC, that it was important to enact legislation that would give effect to various protocols. It was noted that legislation was important because the various protocols did not form part of the laws of the country and this made it difficult to ensure compliance with them.

The meeting was adjourned.