DIRCO & ARF 2021/22 Quarter 1 & 2 performance, with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

Opening Remarks
The Chairperson welcomed the Committee and hoped everyone enjoyed the festive season and invested time spending this with their families. Many families faced difficulties such as poverty, unemployment, and spending December holidays under the effects of COVID-19. Some worrisome developments have been noted globally particularly on the African continent such as coup d'etats. He is concerned by the rise in unconstitutional changes of government and the threat of terrorism on the continent. Finding ways towards peaceful solutions will be a crucial test for the African Union as it marks its 20th anniversary this year.

Despite these challenges, it is important to have hope. Embedded in hope is the vision to achieve a just world order. This is driven by the need to build a solid foundation for future generations to inherit. Practical efforts need to be taken to achieve a peaceful world order. Global engagements undertaken during the reporting period, centered on the promotion of South Africa’s national interests and areas of mutual interest, the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as exchange of views on a wide spectrum of bilateral and global concerns.

The Chairperson said it is important that economic diplomacy and image-building activities undertaken by the South African missions abroad are aimed at promoting the country’s economic interests, exploring investment opportunities, promotion of tourism, skills development, and cultural exchanges, to address the wrongs of the past. The Committee heard that the Cuban government has requested South Africa’s assistance to address the shortage of food and medical supplies. The Committee supports this gesture, as shortages are exacerbated by the unilateral United States economic sanctions on Cuba.

There is an upcoming African Union (AU) summit centered on building resilience and nutrition on the African continent, accelerating human capital social and economic development. In line with its theme for this year, it is the Committee’s hope that the AU will take bold steps to address the already dire situation of food insecurity and malnutrition on the continent before it gets worse. He hopes the summit will focus on necessary steps in achieving the goals set out by the continent. The AU needs to look not only the COVID-19 challenge but also Africa does not have the necessary technologies to deal with pandemics.

The Chairperson noted the decision he referred to as controversial by the AU Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, to grant observer status to Israel. It was incomprehensible for the AU to recognise and grant observer status to the state of Israel. He expressed his hope that South Africa would ensure that the AU handles this matter with the sensitivity it deserves.

Deputy Minister Alvin Botes noted the Minister could not attend this meeting as she is leading a delegation to the African Union. He said the Acting Director-General will lead the presentation.

DIRCO 2021/22 Quarter 1&2 performance
Acting Director-General, Ambassador Nonceba Losi, said the COVID-19 pandemic still affects diplomatic operations across the world. Most countries introduced travel restrictions and resorted to digital means to conduct their business.

Programme 2 International Relations
National interests are pursued through bilateral engagements such as the structured bilateral mechanisms, the high-level visits and the various economic diplomacy initiatives undertaken at the Missions.The engagements undertaken during the reporting period centred on the promotion of South Africa’s national interests and areas of mutual interest, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as exchange of views on a wide spectrum of bilateral and global concerns.

Africa
Political engagements with countries in the region focused on:
• Strengthening bilateral cooperation in the fields of agriculture, health - particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, science and technology, regional and global politics, peace and security on the continent, food security and agriculture, tourism, minerals and energy, transport and infrastructure
• Relaxation of patent requirements to enable the continent to manufacture the 100 million vaccine doses estimated as required by the continent to have an impact against the pandemic
• The situation in Northern Mozambique; and the impasse on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations.

Americas and Europe
Political engagements with countries in the region focused on:
• Security situations on the African continent.
• COVID-19 matters including funding and PPE equipment, strategies to assist Africa to manufacture vaccines to combat the pandemic, support for the TRIPS waiver, post COVID-19 economic recovery.
• Reaffirmed the need to continue to support humanitarian efforts and for the important role of regional institutions and regional peace-making initiatives.

Asia and Middle East
Political engagements with countries in the region focused on:
• New areas of cooperation on youth and women’s economic empowerment in digital technology, small business development and social safety net programmes.
• Support for Palestinian statehood, developments with the AU and initiatives in the UN context supported by South Africa.
• Progress on the Mzimvubu Water and Northern Cape Small Harbour Development Projects.

Regional Investment Strategies
Africa: Investment from African countries into South Africa remains limited; however, there is huge potential in the region for South African investment across almost all sectors. Investment outreach initiatives focused on priority interventions aimed at restoring growth and creating jobs. Discussions focused on sectors such as transport, ICT, energy and renewable energy, telecommunication, manufacturing, mining, waste management.

Americas and Europe: The unfortunate events in early July 2021 that resulted in civil unrest in parts of South Africa, are viewed in a serious negative light by important trade and investment partner countries. Investment outreach initiatives focused on priority interventions aimed at restoring growth and creating jobs. Discussions focused on sectors such as aquaculture, infrastructure, pharmaceutical industry, automotive, maritime and shipbuilding, and technology sharing. Expansion of companies in the region into Africa, supporting the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Programme 3 International Cooperation
Progress report on implementation of the approved strategy
Not achieved – South Africa will maintain its current level of international memberships and entertain no new memberships. As such, there is no need to draft a strategy on this.

South-South Cooperation.
BRICS leaders welcomed the concrete deliverables under the BRICS Chairship in 2021 with reference to the signing and/or adoption of:
- Agreement on BRICS Cooperation on Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation
- Finalisation of Agreement on BRICS Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters.

Programme 4 Public Diplomacy; State Protocol & Consular Services
Amongst the 100% targets achieved were 13 protocol services rendered during visits; 176 consular services rendered and 13 388 of documents legalized.

Programme 1: Administration
The performance information highlighted some compliance issues (see document).

Programme 5 International Transfers
No performance targets are required for this.

Financial Report Quarter 1
Total expenditure for Quarter of 2021/22 is R1.682 billion compared to the cash drawings of R1.991 billion with a variance of 16% lower than projected. The variances were explained:

Programme 1 spent R268.3 million of the projected expenditure of R407.7 million. The low spending is mainly attributable to the delay in the implementation of the property management strategy due to delays with the bid evaluation committees, delay in the delivery of ICT equipment as well as delay in the processing of ICT bandwidth invoices due to challenges in creation of order number on Central Supplier Database due to expired tax certificate of the company.

Programme 2 spent R806.5 million of the projected expenditure of R887.1 million. The low spending is mainly attributable to 17 missions did not close their accounts on time as a result the expenditure had not been recorded on Basic Accounting System for reporting as of 30 June 2021; lower exchange rate in the first quarter as well as less travel due to lockdown restrictions.

Programme 3 spent R108.9 million of to the projected expenditure of R135.6 million. The low spending is mainly attributable to to expenditure for two missions which did not close their accounts on time as a result the expenditure has not been recorded on Basic Accounting System for reporting as of 30 June 2021, lower exchange rate in the first quarter as well as less travel due to the lockdown restrictions.

Programme 4 spent R54.1 million of the projected expenditure of R73.2 million. Low spending is mainly due to less travel due to lockdown restrictions as well partial payment of municipality taxes for foreign missions in South Africa due to outstanding invoices.

Programme 5 spent R444.2 million of the projected expenditure of R488.0 million. Low expenditure is attributable to favourable exchange rate experienced in first quarter as well as outstanding assessment letters for annual assessed contribution to United Nations Development Programme and Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Financial Report Quarter 2
Total expenditure for the 2nd quarter of 2021/22 financial year amounts to R1.233 billion as compared to the projected expenditure of R1.485 billion representing a variance of 17% lower than what had been projected. The variance analysis per programme is explained as follows.

Programme 1 spent R306.9 million of the projected expenditure of R389.0 million. The low spending is mainly attributable to the delay in the implementation of property management strategy due to delays with the bid evaluation committees, delay in the delivery of ICT equipment as well as well as invoices for bandwidth services that were not paid due to expired contract.

Programme 2 spent R740.6 million of the projected expenditure of R872.4 million. The low spending is mainly attributable to expenditure for 15 missions which did not close their accounts on time as a result the expenditure has not been recorded on Basic Accounting System for reporting as of 30 September 2021, lower exchange rate experienced as well as less travel due to the lockdown restrictions.

Programme 3 spent R114.8 million of the projected expenditure of R126.5 million. The low spending is mainly attributable to four missions which did not close their accounts on time as a result the expenditure has not been recorded on Basic Accounting System for reporting as of 30 September 2021, lower exchange rate experienced as well as less travel due to the lockdown.

Programme 4 spent R67.7 million of the projected expenditure of R76.1 million. The low spending is due to less travel due to lockdown restrictions.

Programme 5 spent R2.9 million of the projected expenditure of R20.9 million. Low spending is due to transfer payments for Commonwealth that was not paid due to outstanding assessment letter.

African Renaissance and International Co-Operation Fund 2021/22 Quarter 1&2 performance
The ARF has continued to be an important instrument in pursuit of South Africa’s foreign policy, particularly the African Agenda. South Africa will fund the procurement of 2 030 400 J&J vaccine doses for 26 African countries. This will be a significant contribution by South Africa to the fight against Covid-19 on the continent. The vaccines will be made available to African countries through the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) over a period of 18 months. Cuba requested South Africa’s assistance to address its shortage of food and medical supplies. R50 million was approved to provide some relief to address pressing food shortages in Cuba.

Programme: Administration
All five targets were achieved in both Q1 and Q2

The Secretariat continued to monitor the active projects in collaboration with missions abroad to ensure that funds are utilized for what they were intended for.

Programme: Promotion of democracy and good governance
No project funding targets were set in Q1. Quarter 2 had three targets and only one target was achieved. No physical SADC election observers were sent for elections due to COVID19 restrictions. No requests were received for consideration by ARF for  projects promoting good governance and funding was prioritised for critical humanitarian projects

Programme: Provision of humanitarian assistance
Target was exceeded as two instead of one humanitarian assistance projects were funded

Discussion
Mr W Faber (DA) said the ARF budget will increase from 6.3 billion in 2021/22 to 6.6 billion in 2023/24, this is very controversial because a lot of this money will be used for Cuba. ARF should be used for Africa, if there are funds used for Cuba it should be through National Treasury and he does not see why ARF funds are used for Cuba – this is not fair on Africa.

Mr Faber said the Committee stated last year that DIRCO needs to take the infrastructure maintenance function away from Public Works and he asked if the money allocated under Infrastructure Development and Projects is used for this purpose.

Mr M Hendricks (Al Jama-ah) thanked DIRCO for the presentation. He asked why DIRCO is not serving on the BRICS Development Bank and instead National Treasury is serving on the structures. One of the projects BRICS has ongoing in South Africa is leading to forced removals. BRICS has an anti-terrorism initiative. He asked if there is undercover cooperation between BRICS countries. President Ramaphosa accepting the letter of introduction from the Israel Ambassador caused a lot of controversy and he asked DIRCO’s comment on this. He asked why ARF is not used to aid countries in Western Sahara and Palestine to defend themselves.

Mr B Nkosi (ANC) complained that combining Quarters 1 and 2 makes the presentation very bulky and not specific to particular quarters. This makes it hard for the Committee to track performance of specific targets per quarter. The Committee has raised this before that DIRCO report per quarter. The Committee had agreed these should be two separate meetings for report back.

The information dealt with political engagements with countries. DIRCO should not report on engagements but the results of those engagements. DIRCO should report on specific outcomes or decisions from the engagements with countries. There were many topics outlined on infrastructure, ICT, and the ocean economy but it fails to say what concrete actions or results came from these engagements. He asked if DIRCO has the capacity to monitor implementation of decisions taken at engagements or is it the responsibility of line departments. DIRCO should be able to track and monitor decisions taken during these engagements to see if these discussions have led to concrete programmes. There has been a lot of international meetings with various departments and asked if the content of these meetings is determined by DIRCO or by the line departments.

He raised the non-achievement on the South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA). The Committee has raised this for the past two financial years, and it is concerning that there has been no progress. Explanation given by DIRCO might be adequate but it does not answer the fundamental question on what the actual processes are to establish SADPA, and this relates to the Foreign Service Act.

On ICT, if DIRCO is unable to deliver laptops because there has been a delay in delivery or the bid adjudication committee has been unable to meet, what has the effect been on service deliverables and what steps has DIRCO taken to remedy this? These should be flagged early before raised by the Auditor-General as reportable matters. He asked for clarity on the accounting interface with the 17 missions. If this is a one-off issue then it should not be a problem but if it continues then it will be a problem for the Auditor-General.

Ms T Msane (EFF) said that South Africa and this Committee need to take a clear stance on the President accepting the Israel Ambassador credentials. DIRCO needs to explain to the public why this accreditation happened. There have been calls for the Israeli Embassy to be closed in South Africa. Minister Naledi Pandor said South Africa stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine and support was pulled for Miss South Africa to attend the Miss Universe contest in Israel. South Africa needs to take a clear stance. The same goes with Swaziland – South Africa needs to take a stance on what is happening in that country. The government of Swaziland is killing its citizens and South Africa has failed to do or say anything on the matter.

She asked why elections were delayed in Libya and what progress has been made in Libya since South Africa is part of the negotiation team working on this. The report did not mention interventions on insurgencies happening in West Africa. This dates back to the first country which got its independence. Insurrections have always been a problem for this region and the AU needs to look at long lasting solutions to this problem. She asked what South Africa’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict is and believes the involvement of the United States makes it a proxy war between Russia and USA. It is very cowardly for DIRCO to keep quiet on matters relating to immigrants and the problems they are faced with in South Africa. It is very problematic that the DIRCO Deputy Director-General  was involved in a Twitter Space that was very xenophobic, and this further promotes division between South Africans and other Africans. DIRCO needs to clarify what its role is on this issue. She also asked for an update on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

The Chairperson said the matter of the Deputy Director-General  comments on social media will be discussed in person with the Minister. The Committee must wait on the outcome of that meeting.

Ms B Swarts (ANC) said it is "difficult at DIRCO" and expressed her disappointment on the poor quality of the report. DIRCO decided to report on events rather than on clear indicators and targets. There has only been excuses when it comes to DIRCO finances and citing reasons such as ICT and COVID-19 will not work anymore. The Committee wants to hear what was achieved and what was not according to the planned targets set out by DIRCO and the reason for non-achievements. DIRCO makes the oversight work of the Committee difficult. On Programme 2 and 3 DIRCO is merely reporting on events and meetings without showing actual outputs and outcomes. She asked how South Africa benefitted from structured bilateral and high-level visits during the period under review, what the tangible results were from the regional investment strategies, and to what extent this contributed to local and regional economic development. DIRCO tried to report on achievements in Programme 1 but it was poorly done. DIRCO needs to be specific with tangibles and provide evidence to the Committee on its progress.

Mr T Mpanza (ANC) agreed that DIRCO should report separately on each quarter and on ARF. The engagement with DIRCO should be more balanced in future meetings as the presentation took up a lot of time leaving little time for Committee members to engage on the reports. National Treasury has issued a format on how departments should report on quarterly performance and asked how this has improved their reporting. There needs to be more improvement under Programme 1 and this has been a problem for DIRCO for some time. Whenever the Auditor-General raises audit queries it comes from this programme and DIRCO should focus on solving these problems. DIRCO must avoid including targets that are not funded and should use the SMART principle when setting indicators and targets.

Mr Mpanza said some of the concerns raised by Ms Msane are very important. These might not speak to the report, but they touch on important issues happening in the country and internationally. He suggested the Committee discuss these concerns at a separate meeting including the matter of the Deputy Director-General . The Committee should make a statement on the remarks made. He thanked the Committee researcher for continually giving Committee Members updates on international matters.

Mr D Bergman (DA) said he would have liked the presenters to talk about real issues affecting DIRCO. The legalisation department within DIRCO is facing major challenges and there is currently a six-week delay in issuing legalizations. This needs to be addressed urgently since it delays people taking up jobs. It is the Committee’s responsibility to ensure these matters are addressed in oversight reports so these matters can be resolved. More focus should be put on Africa and on matters that are hurting South Africans and Africans.

No mention has been made of what is happening in Swaziland or in Mozambique – these issues could easily spill into South Africa, but more focus is put on the Middle East. This translates to South Africa not being taken seriously at AU or UN conferences. Countries do not take South Africa seriously and ask why South Africa is so obsessed with what is happening in the Middle East. South Africa needs to worry more about problems in Africa. This is not to say that Palestine and Israel are not a problem but the problem with South Africa is it involves itself in things it does not know about. If South Africa is so serious about Israel, then this Committee needs to take an oversight visit to both those countries. This Committee should be having briefing about DRC, Mozambique, and Swaziland – these should be the focus – with the Committee calling in these ambassadors and discussing these issues.

Mr Mpanza said Mr Bergman had made a lot of misrepresentations. He assumes Mr Bergman probably joined the meeting late or did not hear what was said in the meeting. The Committee is not preoccupied with the Middle East. Committee members raised the topic of Mozambique and Swaziland. Members must not engage in a manner that insults the intelligence of other MPs. It is wrong to say that Members talk about issues they do not know about. Every time Palestine and Israel are raised, Mr Bergman’s remarks become unacceptable. He might be feeling very strongly about the issue, but the views of the Committee should not be oppressed.

The Chairperson said DIRCO in response must in detail indicate the global focus of the Department and this should take care of the assumption made by Mr Bergman that there is no focus on the African continent. It would be helpful for DIRCO not to make general statements in its reports; DIRCO needs to be more specific and give details for the sake of transparency and giving the Committee a better understanding. He asked DIRCO to indicate to what extent the Department needs to do consequence management and how will this affect the budget. He asked DIRCO in future to give in-depth details on how their programmes or international investment engagements and strategies affirm women and previously disadvantaged South Africans. DIRCO must be able to report on how trade investments have impacted ordinary South Africans.

DIRCO response
Ambassador Nonceba Losi responded that DIRCO does have evidence on target achievements and the Department can elaborate on what South Africa has done on the political front. The DIRCO SADC Affairs Director will give more details on what DIRCO has been doing in Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho.

Mr Andrew Maswanganye, DIRCO SADC Affairs Director, said South Africa started chairing SADC last year after it took over from Botswana. South Africa had already been facilitating some of the issues within SADC even before it took over the chairship. Lesotho has been one of those which is a very complex issue. President Ramaphosa was appointed facilitator on this by SADC and he appointed the former Deputy Chief Justice to do the facilitation on his behalf. A roadmap was adopted three years ago and there has been a lot of progress on this. A large part of the problem will be solved by Lesotho government itself and South Africa’s role is only to facilitate and ensure the process runs smoothly. The Lesotho government will be having parliamentary elections this year and will be based on constitution reforms, and this was the result of South Africa’s facilitation. These elections will assist Lesotho to make greater strides in solving its problems.

Mozambique has proven a difficult matter to deal with. It has been difficult to initiate a delegation to Mozambique and there have been differing views among SADC members as to what the real problem is and what to call it – terrorism or an insurrection. SADC is currently scenario planning, and the military is underway to reclaim areas under the control of extremist groups. These militia groups are very well organised and well equipped in terms of weaponry. SADC not only needs to focus on a military response but also a socio-economic response and assist Mozambique in implementing this plan. South Africa and other member states have deployed their military personal and some SADC members have seconded non-military staff, funds and equipment. SADC has engaged AU for more capacity to deal with this matter. This is the first time the region has faced such an issue and there has been a lot of learning and collaboration.

The Swaziland matter is very sensitive and there are various opinions on the matter in South Africa. SADC has tried to mediate, and a plan is currently being negotiated with authorities in Swaziland. The authorities have agreed on mediation and this process will begin to unfold as the terms of reference of the mediation is discussed with the different groups. SADC will ensure mediation unfolds successfully.

Ambassador Losi commented on West Africa, saying President Ramaphosa visited the region with the aim of strengthening relations between these countries and South Africa. Focus was also brought on strengthening the ECOWAS response to these insurrections. South Africa has issued statements on the insurrections and will continue to work with AU and ECOWAS to deal with this matter. The situation is still concerning, and South Africa is following these developments closely and engaging with ECOWAS on these matters.

She agreed there needs to be a meeting where DIRCO will elaborate on the matters raised by Members. DIRCO will provide concrete steps and in-depth details on bilateral and high-level meetings and what the results are from these engagements. She noted the comments made on how DIRCO reports and assured the Committee the next report will be different and provide tangible results. DIRCO will continally improve on its reporting to the Portfolio Committee and presentations will adequately reflect all programmes DIRCO is involved in. The current presentation was on engagements that took place and touched on deliberations with other countries and institutions of global governance.

The ICT issue is mainly on processes and most of the targets sets out under ICT will be achieved. There has been progress and DIRCO will report back on this in the next quarter since it is a Quarter 3 target. Implementation is happening successfully, and the ICT Modernisation process is well on track. There was a bit of delay in getting tools of trade to staff and it has been difficult getting replacement equipment to missions internationally. It is currently taking three to four weeks for equipment to reach international missions.

DIRCO will put better performance planning process in place, particularly for Programme 2. DIRCO needs to follow reporting guidelines set out by Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation and National Treasury. It has been a challenge using these guidelines and setting out in detail what tangible results come from indicators and targets. Targets and indicators are time bound and DIRCO is mandated to report at the end of every financial year on these indicators and how they contribute to overcome the triple challenges South Africa faces with poverty, unemployment and inequality.

When engagements happen between South Africa and other countries, line departments are responsible for the bulk of the work and DIRCO’s responsibility is to facilitate on behalf of the department, the content and discussions will mainly be led by line departments themselves and they set their own agendas and issues they want to raise. DIRCO does follow up with departments on these engagements, but it is the line departments responsibility to monitor and follow up on decisions and joint agreements taken at these bilateral and high-level engagements. Political engagements are ongoing and DIRCO might not be able to report back on these during the quarterly reports. A high-level analysis will usually be made available annually on political engagements and these reports will be shared with the Committee.

BRICS has 10 projects currently in South Africa and all of them are funded through the New Development Bank. These are all approved projects and are worth 4.4 billion US dollars. These are inclusive of the COVID emergency loans given to South Africa by BRICS. Some of these funds will go to SOEs such as Eskom and Transnet.

Adv Sandea De Wet, DIRCO Chief State Legal Advisor, spoke on the promulgation of the Foreign Service Act. Positive progress has been made for the implementation of this Act and DIRCO has finished setting up guidelines for this Act. Guidelines were approved and they were discussed at a ministerial meeting. The Minister indicated that she would like to have a discussion on the guidelines with the Deputy Ministers and advisor so she has a better understanding on what the implications of the regulations will be. DIRCO is currently waiting for this meeting to happen. DIRCO submitted the draft regulations and guidelines to the Justice Department for certification and this will finalise the text before it goes into further discussion. DIRCO will brief the Portfolio Committee as soon as this certification of the regulations and guidelines is given by the Justice Department.

Ms Dineo Mathlako, ARF Chief Financial Officer, replied on SADPA that Minister Pandor has written to Minister of Finance requesting a meeting so the matter can be finalised and be discussed by Cabinet to approve the draft Partnership for Development Bill for tabling in Parliament.

Ms Hlengiwe Bhengu, DIRCO Chief Financial Officer, confirmed infrastructure maintenance has changed from the Department of Public Works to DIRCO which will be regulated by the Foreign Service Act. DIRCO also approved a property management strategy and a disposal policy. These documents are being implemented. The Bid Adjudication Committee has been unable to meet due to the schedule of the members. These members are senior people within the Department and have busy schedules. If the bid adjudication committee does not meet it will further hamper the work of the Finance branch. The bid adjudication committee needs to evaluate the property reports and give the Finance branch the go ahead. The Acting DG is currently dealing with this matter and the bid adjudication committee is expected to sit soon and look at the reports.

On the ICT interface with mission systems, the system is not integrated so information has to be manually moved from the missions to the National Treasury system. DIRCO has written to National Treasury to remove the moratorium placed on departments on buying their own ICT system. DIRCO is looking at buying a system to electronically integrate the National Treasury system and that of the missions. This will enable DIRCO to report in real time and on a consistent basis.

Ambassador Losi said DIRCO has a report available on budget implications caused by consequence management and this report will be made available to the Committee. DIRCO will embark on commissioning a report on how its programmes have helped with creating a non-sexist, non-racist South Africa.

Further discussion
Mr Nkosi said in future it would be better if DIRCO reports every three months to give the Committee an update on current challenges within the Department to avoid Members raising issues that are not detailed in reports and presentations. It is condescending of Mr Bergman to assume Committee members do not know what they are talking about when it comes to Palestine and Israel. DIRCO has a policy on the Middle East and Members are within their rights to comments on this region.

Mr Faber said he does not think it is fair for anyone to cast aspersions on another since Mr Bergman is not in the meeting anymore.

Mr Mpanza said the Committee must not allow an animal farm situation. The same thing Mr Faber is complaining about is what Mr Bergman did. Respect must be mutual because all members are equal in the Committee,

The Chairperson said it is inevitable that some issues will cause tensions between Members, but it is important to focus on the strategic issues put before the Committee. Members must always focus on the meeting objective to ensure discussions do not derail from strategic issues. He requested all Committee Members to work on their restraint even though other Members try and provoke the situation. This will allow the Committee to make progress and focus on its important work. No one must cast aspersions on anyone. It is also wrong to assume Committee members do not know what they talk about. The Committee will make time to debate on Palestine and Israel

Deputy Minister closing remarks
Deputy Minister Alvin Botes said South Africa is still celebrating the silver jubilee of its Constitution and integral to it is the Bill of Rights. When DIRCO implements foreign policy objectives around the world it must not be in conflict with the Bill of Rights and that includes the right to self determination and social justice. One foreign policy objective that is being pursued is South to South cooperation and this is a key and important factor in the foreign policy depositary.

One of the issues raised was Israel and it could be an important issue for discussion by the Committee to give the Committee a deeper understanding of the state of affairs in Gaza. The UN Charter has been continually violated. It is not truthful that Palestine Arabs exist in a peaceful manner with Israeli people as more than 700 000 Palestinians have been displaced through the annexation process.

The Deputy Minister remarked that the blockade in place on Cuba by the USA has caused so much damage to the people of Cuba and the ARF has provided food security relief.

The Chairperson thanked the Deputy Minister and DIRCO and said everything the Committee does is to create a non-sexist, non-racist South Africa.

Meeting closed.