It would seem international relations & co-operation minister Ronald Lamola and senior officials in his department hardly make it their business to schmooze with the diplomatic corps. Spotting them at such events is almost like finding a needle in a haystack. On the rare occasions they do appear, they often arrive late, which is par for the course for ministers and officials. Late-coming is like some pestilence they seem to struggle to get rid of.
In most cases, they send their underlings who manfully make excuses for their superiors. “The minister would have loved to have been here, but unfortunately he has to attend to an urgent matter.” Or this clincher: “The minister has been called to an urgent meeting with the president.” Experienced diplomats nod politely as they sip their beverages and tuck into snacks. They’ve heard that one before.
At a recent function to celebrate Poland’s national independence day, the department outdid itself. It sent a junior official from the National Treasury. Why a flunkey from Treasury nobody seemed to know. Nevertheless, everybody seemed to take it in their stride. Mr National Treasury spent his time on the podium pontificating ad nauseam about the appalling suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and how the international community should follow South Africa’s example in calling Israel to order.
We can all agree that the situation in Gaza is awful. The needless destruction of life and property, especially the killing of children, doesn’t bear thinking about. But that wasn’t the place to raise the issue. It felt as though the speaker was tone deaf, completely oblivious to the audience or the environment. But the speaker couldn’t be blamed. He wasn’t a diplomat.
I guess Pretoria is always crawling with diplomats and it could be tiring to attend interminable functions, often bumping into the same familiar faces. But it is their duty as our diplomats to drink and gorge themselves in the service of their country. After all, it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country. But it would seem Dirco, contrary to its name, is neither interested in forging friendly relations with other countries nor co-operating with anybody. One could easily dismiss the failure to attend the Polish function as a non-issue, making a mountain out of a molehill. After all, Poland is a middling faraway East European country that may not mean much to us. That is, until one takes into account the fact that Poland was poised to take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from the beginning of this month. The empty suits at Dirco surely knew about this fact, and pooh-poohed it all the same.
We need now to fight to woo the world, with the understanding that — with poverty, high unemployment, illiteracy and so on — we need the world more than it needs us.
The EU, a bloc of 27 members states, is by far South Africa’s largest trading partner — outstripping the US and China — and the largest foreign investor, representing the majority of foreign direct investment in the country. The more than 2,000 companies from EU member states account for more than half a million jobs. For a country on the skids, like we are, that’s not to be sniffed at. We’re not in a position to be looking gift horses in the mouth. We need every friend we can get, especially those who can help us alleviate the suffering staring us in the face. The first rule of diplomacy is not to offend.
But South Africa, or its diplomats anyway, seem to still be caught up in the irrational excitement of the Mandela era. The world was so enthralled by Nelson Mandela — the prisoner who eschewed revenge and espoused peace — that it was prepared to do everything to help make his project, the new South Africa, a success. Well, things have changed now. South Africa has become just another corrupt African country. For instance, the UK government decided after 1994 to scrap visa requirements for South African citizens. That concession was revoked after it was discovered that foreign elements — drug dealers and terrorists among them — were acquiring South African passports illegally in order to gain easy access to the UK and other EU countries. That Mandela effect is gone. We need now to fight to woo the world, with the understanding that — with poverty, high unemployment, illiteracy and so on — we need the world more than it needs us.
But the government is already incorrectly using, or abusing, the instrument at its disposal. It is using the diplomatic service as a dumping ground for discarded politicians, their relatives or party functionaries. It is used as a thank you to those who’ve served, not the country but the so-called glorious movement, with distinction. The children of both Mandela and Oliver Tambo have served or are still serving as the country’s representatives. There may be more, but the country is always conveniently kept in the dark about such appointments. The only time people got to know that Smuts Ngonyama, the erstwhile ANC spin doctor, was the country’s ambassador to Japan was when the ugly skirmish between his wife and their helper was revealed in the media.
At the time of the fallout between South Africa and the US after claims by its ambassador Reuben Brigety that the country had covertly supplied arms to Russia, we discovered much to our horror that our ambassador to Washington was none other than Nomaindia Mfeketo, the failed former mayor of Cape Town. And she was not even at her post during such a sensitive period, apparently back home recovering from an undisclosed illness. And how many people know that Nathi Mthethwa, former minister of police and the real hero of Marikana, was our ambassador to France? And former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool is going back to Washington for a second tour of duty during perhaps one of the most racist and Islamophobic US administrations in living memory.
It must really be tough and frustrating for career diplomats in South Africa who are always elbowed out of lucrative postings in favour of connected ruling party hacks. No doubt the country is ill-served because these people’s allegiance is to the party. To make sure such appointments are open and transparent, perhaps South Africa should adopt a system similar to that of the US, where an envoy, although appointed by the president, cannot take up a posting until approval by the Senate. That system is not beyond reproach, however. The president very often uses ambassadorships to reward friends and donors to his election campaign. But American envoys, unlike ours, very rarely have to do the heavy-lifting. America’s chief diplomat is the mighty dollar. Its economy — and military — is so huge that the entire international community or system is inevitably drawn to it. All that their envoys have to do is to grin and be seen.
Maybe the government should take a leaf from its predecessor’s book. The National Party government knew that they were up against it. They were loathed by foes who sought their destruction and merely tolerated by those they regarded as friends. Diplomacy was their only effective weapon. They therefore made sure they posted their ablest diplomats in major centres like Washington, London, Paris or Bonn. At the height of the international sanctions campaign against South Africa in the 1980s, it dispatched its director-general of foreign affairs, Brand Fourie, a man who had served six heads of state from Jan Smuts to PW Botha, as its ambassador to Washington. It was an acknowledgment by the regime that the situation was so dire it required its chief diplomat on the scene — a man who had the ear of the president.
The diplomatic service should not be used as a junkyard or retirement village for washed-up politicians. It should instead be a magnet for young and aspiring diplomats.
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