Hon Chair, hon chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Co- operation and hon members, Your Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners, representatives of international organisations, distinguished guests - I am also quite honoured to see that we have amongst us here, Justice Albie Sachs and his spouse - all other dignitaries here with us today in this House, ladies and gentlemen, fellow South Africans, comrades and friends, nearly a year ago, our fourth democratic government was installed on the basis of an election manifesto which promised that working together we could do more. Embodied in this were the aspirations of our mothers, our fathers, our brothers and sisters, and, indeed, our children.
Hardly three months thereafter we stood before you promising in our first budget speech that, while our department would consolidate those areas where it was on track in terms of our international activities, it would urgently have to locate itself squarely in the national effort to ensure that all of us, bound together by a common patriotism will rise together with a singular sense of purpose in pursuit of the agenda outlined by our President.
Chairperson, we stand here before you, today, confident that our department has not only fully aligned its work to our key domestic priorities, but that it has also woven this into our strategic focus, which is based on the primacy of the African continent; the certainty of our Southern African Development Community region; our commitment to South-South relations and the centrality of multilateralism; the significance of relations with countries in the northern hemisphere; and the strengthening of social, political and economic relations.
Hon Chair and members, therefore the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, Dirco, working together with other departments - and I see Minister Cwele, one of our important partners, with us here - will be the bridge builder required to forge a better democratic South Africa, a better Africa and a better world. Dirco will be the path-finder. Dirco will be the one that goes out there and breaks down obstacles where we encounter them. Dirco will always be there to help us find new opportunities for our country.
Today, our country finds itself in a position of responsibility as a member of the international community. We are constantly reminded, when we are invited to forums such as the G20 and the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington last week, that more is expected of us. In fact, we are always expected to punch above our weight.
For our country, our region and our continent this is a responsibility we can neither shirk nor fail at. In rising to this challenge, we should never miss the opportunity to look back and learn from our successes and setbacks in our endeavour to remain focused on our goal for a better life. We must also frankly assess our capacity against the weight of rising expectations.
We, at the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, have been involved in all these exercises. We will be coming to this House in the course of this financial year to engage hon members further on the substance and direction of our foreign policy. We will seek members' support in order to strengthen Dirco in its principal advisory and implementing role on international relations.
This will culminate in a White Paper that will serve as a guide in the conduct of our foreign policy. We will also present a Bill for the establishment of the South African Development Partnership Agency for your consideration. This will give a legal framework to the execution of our foreign policy and facilitate more effective co-operation with our international partners.
We are currently in the process of consulting our stakeholders on the need for the establishment of a foreign policy council. This will serve as an avenue for our non-state actors to interface with Dirco on our foreign policy development and implementation.
As part of our public diplomacy, we have commenced with a very exciting outreach programme throughout the country to communicate directly with our communities about our foreign policy. As a consequence, we have been to the Limpopo province, to the Eastern Cape, and recently, to the Free State. We intend to visit all remaining provinces in the course of this financial year. Our annual conference is also a platform for us to reach out to our think-tanks for dialogue with them on our foreign policy. Implicit in this is also accountability to the people whose mandate put us in office.
As the focal point of our foreign policy in our government, we are cognisant of the fact that we can do our work better and more effectively when all international engagements of our government departments, our provinces and municipalities are well co-ordinated. This avoids duplication, working at cross-purposes, or functioning in a manner that could wrongly suggest to our partners abroad that we are not a well- organised government and country. This would be undesirable.
Over the past 16 years since our freedom in 1994, there have been many achievements in our country on the foreign policy front. But there are also lessons learned from experiences which we cannot ignore. Therefore, moving forward in the fourth administration, we have to build on our achievements and the wisdom that we have gained from these past lessons. There must be continuity to consolidate our gains, but also change to improve on our work and respond effectively to emerging global trends.
In respect of building on the foundations of our foreign policy and our constitutional values, we must pursue more strongly the dynamic linkage between what we do abroad and what we want to achieve in our country. We have to continue thinking globally and acting locally. We should continue to bring into full view our national interests in the context of our pan- African commitments and our role and responsibilities in the world.
Chairperson, the year 2010 is historic in many ways: 21 March this year marked the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, which was a significant turning point in our liberation struggle and gave impetus to the establishment of the anti-apartheid movement across the world.
This year we are also celebrating the centenary of Kwame Nkrumah and the 110th anniversary of the first Pan-African Conference, which was held in 1900 under the leadership of Henry Sylvester-Williams. We also join the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo when they celebrate the 50th anniversary of their country's independence on 30 June 2010. We remember in our hearts Patrice Lumumba, whose tragic death is another story in the chronicle of the painful history of the rebuilding and the decolonisation of this continent.
South Africa remains committed to regional economic integration in Africa, very much in line with the dreams and visions of Patrice Lumumba. We believe that our work in SADC should build on the free-trade arrangement achieved in 2008 by focusing on boosting regional production capacity, facilitating cross-border trade and developing cross-border infrastructure.
The current Chairperson of the African Union, the AU, the President of Malawi, says that it is about time that African governments stop building highways to nowhere, that we should not build a highway that starts on the N1 and ends at Beit Bridge. The N1 highway should continue across the country of Zimbabwe and into other African countries. That is the only way we can say that integration is, indeed, at work.
We also believe that the time has come to extend preferential markets across Southern and Eastern Africa through the Tripartite Free Trade Area that will draw together SADC, the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Comesa.
The decision by the 14th Session of the African Union to integrate the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad, into the African Union and establish the Nepad Planning and Co-ordinating Agency, NPCA, as a technical body of the AU, is an important step towards the acceleration of the implementation of the Nepad programme. The newly-established NPCA will give focused attention to the implementation of the regional integration programmes and projects whilst the African Union Commission will continue to deal with policy and serve, importantly, as the secretariat of the AU.
The AU-Nepad African Plan of Action for the period 2010 to 2015 is a master plan for concrete projects that will serve as a catalyst for the development of our continent. We call upon our partners to work with us in mobilising the requisite resources and implementing this master plan.
The accession by 30 out of 53 of our countries on the continent to the African Peer Review Mechanism, APRM, is a concrete demonstration of the strides we are making as a continent with regard to promoting democratic governance and people-centered development. Even more encouraging is the fact that a substantial number of these countries, 30 of them including our own, have already undergone the peer review process which entails, among other things, developing a national programme of action to improve the systems of political and economic governance and putting measures in place for socioeconomic development. This positive development, including the increasing number of elections taking place in our respective countries, augurs well for our efforts aimed at consolidating democracy on our continent, Africa.
The establishment of the Pan-African Parliament was a step forward in giving all the peoples of Africa a voice in running the affairs of our continent. As provided for in its founding protocol, the Pan-African Parliament has to be transformed from a consultative to a legislative body.
In transforming the Pan-African Parliament, we will need to take into account its experience and history since its establishment in March 2004 with a view to building a strong, efficiently run and effective Pan-African Parliament at the service of the African people. In this regard, we wish to congratulate, and proudly so, Advocate Zwelethu Madasa, our very own former MP, on his appointment as Head of Administration of the Pan-African Parliament. [Applause.]
Our determined focus on Nepad, the APRM and the Pan-African Parliament is in line with our strong-standing commitment to do whatever we can to support African Union organs and institutions that are based in our country. It is also part of our overall programme of engagement with the African Union. This includes our support for other AU bodies, such as the AU Commission, whose capacity and capability as the engine room of the AU are indispensable to the achievement of the objectives for which the AU was established.
We are working with fellow African countries and the AU Commission to ensure the speedy setting up of the financial institutions that are envisaged in the Constitutive Act of the African Union.
The work we do with the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities should be complemented by strong bilateral relations focused on tangible results orientated with other African countries. To this end, we are currently strengthening our bilateral instruments and mechanisms to ensure that they work better for our mutual benefit.
The gains we have made on the continent have not been without setbacks, especially in the area of peace and security. This includes the resurgence of coups and other forms of unconstitutional changes of government. We are unanimous in the African Union on the urgent need to strengthen our response to situations of unconstitutional changes of government, to close all the existing loopholes and make sure that we strengthen all the instruments and mechanisms that put a stop to this.
The African Union has declared 2010 as the Year of Peace and Security in Africa, and we are therefore called upon to redouble our efforts in the resolution of conflicts on our continent. As the former Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Annan said, there will never be peace or security if there is no development, and there can never be development where there is no peace and security.
Hon members, on 1 April 2010 South Africa proudly became a member of the African Union Peace and Security Council for the next two years. We also have the support of all African Union members to seek non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council for the period 2011-12 in October this year. I thought hon members would be happy about this. [Applause.]
I have no doubt in my mind that you will use your membership in this House, including in all our committees, to reach out to all parliamentary bodies all over the world for their support for our very important bid. We see our membership of the AU Peace and Security Council and of the UN Security Council as an opportunity to continue contributing our efforts and resources to the peace, security, stability and development of our continent and also to make our humble contribution to global peace.
South Africa will continue to carry out the SADC mandate to facilitate negotiations between Zanu-PF and the other MDC formations for full implementation of the already-signed Global Political Agreement. We are also pleased to have reached a stage at which we can say that, through our very hard-working President, our facilitation efforts to end the conflict in Burundi are drawing to a very, very positive conclusion. We join the international community in looking forward to elections which will start next month in Burundi.
South Africa's commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflicts and matters of post-conflict reconstruction on our continent are well demonstrated by our continued engagement in the Sudan. With elections having taken place a week ago there, South Africa remains of the firm view that this democratic process holds profound consequences for the future of that country.
I would humbly want to make use of this opportunity to confirm that we are working with all involved for the safe release and return home of our four compatriots who were recently kidnapped in Darfur. Our hearts go out to their families, and we pray for their safe return. The continuing impasse in Madagascar is yet another concern for us. It will require our resolve as SADC and the entire African continent to stand firm against unconstitutional changes of government. We look forward to the outcome of the consultations on Madagascar which will be hosted by hon President Zuma on 28 April. We urge all the leaders of Madagascar to use this opportunity to advance the cause of peace, stability and democracy in the interests of the ordinary Malagasy people.
The past few decades have seen the ascendance of some countries of the South to an influential role in global affairs. Indications are that they will be a more formidable force in the future. Some, like China, India and Brazil, are rapidly increasing their weight in the global economy, transforming the balance of forces internationally in favour of the people of the South.
We have to intensify our bilateral relations with countries of the South, especially with those that are strategic to us because of their economy, history and geopolitical orientation. We also have to take full advantage of South-South multilateral forums such as the Non-Aligned Movement, the G77, and the India-Brazil-South Africa Summit, Ibsa.
We have been intensifying our engagement with China, India and Brazil, among others, through our bilateral relations and Ibsa, and our outreach to Brazil, Russia, India and China, the Bric countries, has also been quite important. In fact, during the course of this year, we shall have interacted at official state visits with all the members of Ibsa and Bric.
As an example, we are working on elevating our relations with China to a higher level - to a comprehensive strategic partnership level. China has only two other countries which have been put at this very important level of partnership. The Ibsa summit that met last week in Brazil was convened back-to-back with that of Bric. Our business sector was represented for the first time in this back-to-back forum, and met just prior to the joint summit.
We have to pay close attention to partnerships with other key countries of the South which have interests in the continent, such as the Forum on China- Africa Co-operation, FOCAC, Africa's comprehensive partnership with India, the Korea-Africa Forum, the French-Africa forum, the New Africa-Asia Strategic Partnership Summit, NAASP, and lastly, the Africa-South America Summit. These forums have demonstrated to us - some even during the difficult years of apartheid - that they can be trusted allies and partners in our struggle for a better Africa and a better world.
We continue to build on the long history of our bond of friendship and solidarity between ourselves and the countries of the South. We will continue to learn from their experience, especially on how, in spite of the colonial history that they share with us, they managed to transform into the tigers that some of them have become today.
We will also continue to strengthen people-to-people and cultural exchanges between us ourselves and the people of the South and use bilateral relations and structures such as Ibsa to intensify exchanges between us in areas of mutual benefit. I have met a lot of members from both the ruling and opposition parties in Brazil, and they looked quite happy when they attended the Parliamentary Forum of Ibsa this past week.
We will continue to provide our support to the settlement of the Palestinian question in the context of the two-state solution and to call for a speedy resolution to the question of the Western Sahara. We remain committed to the strengthening of ties between the African diaspora and our continent, and we are still quite prepared to host the African Diaspora Summit in the near future.
In this regard, we should rally behind the people of Haiti at this difficult moment in its long history. The response of South Africans to the tragedy that befell the Haitians has been overwhelming and, indeed, a clear expression of our ubuntu. We are doing our part as Dirco to contribute to the humanitarian effort currently unfolding in Haiti, and this process has been led by our very capable Deputy Minister Sue van der Merwe. Furthermore, we will not rest until an inclusive democratic dispensation is achieved in Haiti. Our approach to bilateral and multilateral engagement with countries of the world is not limited to Africa and the South. We also value our relations with countries of the North. Each of these geopolitical spaces, that is Africa, the South and the North, is indispensable to our balance and sustained forward movement in international relations and co-operation.
President Obama's administration in the United States of America has taken steps which have helped in creating conducive conditions for re-engagement between our two countries. This culminated in the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding to anchor a strategic partnership between South Africa and the United States just a week or so ago.
The European Union, EU, as a bloc remains a strategic partner, especially in the areas of development, trade and co-operation. The Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement, whose instrument of ratification has been tabled for consideration by the House, provides a framework for this strategic partnership. We are partners with the EU in tackling some of the pressing issues on the continent like institutional state-building particularly in the DRC, and post-conflict reconstruction in Burundi and the Sudan.
We have to speed up and conclude the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations in a manner that will not undermine the regional integration of our continent. This will also help to strengthen the partnership between Africa and the European Union.
South Africa's partnership with the North is not limited to the United States of America and Europe. It also includes important partners such as Japan and Russia. In the context of changing relations between the North and the South, we appreciate the role of the G20 as a new centre of the global political economy.
The United Nations, representing as it does the universal voice of humanity, is still pivotal in global politics, especially with regard to building peace and development in the world and promoting the protection of the human rights of all our people.
The Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, are good examples of the collective agenda of what nations of the world can set for themselves when they work together, rich and poor, big and small. Thus, we intend to play an active role at the MDG Review Summit scheduled for later this year so that we can contribute to accelerating the flow of resources to Africa for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
With regard to the reform of the United Nations and its key institutions, the fifth round of negotiations in New York should be another opportunity for Africa and its partners for reform to rally behind the agenda that will ensure that the composition and work of the UN Security Council reflect the geopolitical reality of the 21st century. South Africa is in support of the view which was expressed at the last summit of the African Union that Africa should from time to time reassess and strengthen its approach to these reforms to ensure that we achieve our common objective.
While appreciating the important steps that have been taken recently towards the reform of the Bretton Woods institutions, we believe that more still needs to be done towards addressing the concerns of developing countries with respect to the relevance, transparency and representivity of these institutions.
Our participation in the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington recently was guided by our three-pronged, principled approach to nuclear matters. These are nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear material. We shall also be working for a successful consensus outcome of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference scheduled for next month.
Today, 22 April, is the 40th Earth Day. We celebrate the planet and close ranks to secure its future, especially against the threat of climate change. Everywhere in our country and all over the world, people are planting trees on this day to green our future. On Earth Day we remind ourselves of the Kenyan proverb that says, Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to you by your children. Although we did not conclude a binding agreement at the 15th Conference of the Parties, Cop 15, South Africa regards the Copenhagen Accord as a step forward in an inclusive multilateral outcome that must be concluded in the near future. Accordingly, we are in contact with the government of Mexico which hosts COP16 this year - I was there two days ago - and intend to take full advantage of the opportunities to make our contribution to this endeavour when we host Cop 17 in 2011.
We at Dirco have introduced measures to strengthen the department internally. Notwithstanding the financial constraints and austerity measures implemented by the department, we are truly confident that we will deliver on our strategic plan for 2010-13.
We have a good and dedicated team at Dirco. I must recognise here, colleagues, that I have very, very capable Deputies - hon Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim on my right and hon member Sue van der Merwe on my left - as well as our senior management and staff under the leadership of a very capable director-general, Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, and his team at the back. We also thank the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Co- operation and our Cabinet for continued support and for keeping us on our toes.
In the next 49 days we will be hosting the Fifa 2010 World Cup. Our department, and this includes our missions, is giving full support to ensure the success of this event. A few minutes ago, as I walked into this room, the hon Minister of Sport and Recreation was responding to his Budget Vote debate. I just want to say to all South Africans that where I have been in the past week, in almost five countries, all over the world, and from reports that we get from our missions, the world wants to come to South Africa. The world is excited about coming to South Africa.
By the time I left Mexico two days ago, 15 000 tickets had been bought by Mexicans. Everywhere I went, even if I could not speak good Spanish, if you just said the words, South Africa, Mandela, 2010, they said they were coming! So, the negativity that we hear about comes from South Africans, not from foreigners. As Dirco, we would want South Africans from all corners of this country to open their arms and their hearts, very much in line with the concept of ubuntu, to receive these guests the South African way.
We want to take this opportunity, once again, to thank all the members for their continued support and we hope they will also be supporting this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]