SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CIVIC
ORGANISATION SUBMISSION
TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS PUBLIC HEARING 2007 ON THE
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS BUDGET VOTE
08
–
1. Introduction:
We would like to thank the Portfolio Committee on Foreign
Affairs for the opportunity to make this submission. However due to unforeseen
circumstances for only receiving the DFA 2005 – 2006 Annual Report and its’
2006 – 2009 Strategic Plan thirty six (36) hours ago; there was very little
time available for us to make a full and comprehensive submission. Thus, we
hope to cover only issues of main concern to SANCO in this submission.
Chairperson at our last Working Committee we were informed
that the Portfolio Committee will invite us to participate at today’s hearing and
upon that announcement all SANCO Working Committee Members grumbled “We wish it was a hearing of the Department
of Home Affairs!!!”. This grumbling of our members issued a statement that
the Department of Home Affairs should be interrogated and not the Department of
Foreign Affairs. This is also the common feeling of citizens of our country.
However Chairperson, when we as leaders of civil society listen intensively to the
plight of our fellow African brothers and sisters from Nigeria or the Congo; or
when we as leaders start to look for foreign investment to boost our country we
then realize the importance and challenges facing foreign affairs matters.
Our submission will only focus on five (5) major aspects
that clearly need attention to confront the challenges we face i.e.:
2. Revising and
enhancing the role of Government with civil society on foreign affairs matters:
Foreign interaction is widely regarded as one of the
post-apartheid government’s major areas of achievement, yet remains one of the
most challenging. The many challenges; in this instance to identify only one crucial
challenge at home e.g. xenophobia; need critical and challenging interventions.
SANCO questioned whether government put much emphasizes on involving and arm
civil society structures to assist in these challenges. We are questioning
whether government uses its budget resources to equip civil society structures
such as SANCO with the necessary skills and training to train our communities on
issues such African Renaissance, NEPAD, AU, APRM, Globalization and its impact,
etc. Whilst we had achieved great successes in changing the political construct
abroad; the economic construct and people driven understanding of globalization
remained largely unchanged. The Department’s Strategic plan and Budget don’t
cater for this.
Effective foreign policy engagement is not solely dependent
on civil society organizations themselves. Obviously the Portfolio Committee on
Foreign Affairs should also be strengthened as it does not seem to be currently
very effective in its oversight role. The Portfolio Committee could become an
important avenue for the public to engage and make submissions on foreign
affairs policy-related issues. Civil society organizations do not only have to
deal with government and parliament on foreign affairs policy matters but also
have the power to engage in al forms of activities like cross border networks
and sector-to-sector linkages. Is government using civil society structures
such as SANCO to network with other countries or inviting civil society
structures at government’s expense to do oversight work on achievements or
failures of other countries? The answer is no. The government is also missing
out on an important opportunity to tap into the resources and expertise of
civil society structures such as SANCO which could compliment government needs.
As SANCO we are saying “here we are”;
empower us to empower our communities and the global world.
3. Changing the
balances between the South and North… and within the South and Consolidation of
the African Agenda
To achieve mere defensive reforms that the present
developing countries are seeking within the World Trade Organisation (WTO),
there would have to be major changes in the balance of power among governments
within the WTO. Many of the developing-country governments have made
considerable advances in their understanding of the WTO – in large measure
thanks to national and international NGO efforts with them and on their behalf.
And many such governments seem to be taking significant steps in forming
tactical alliances, to defend their own countries interest, as the recent
repeated stalemates in the WTO indicate. But for this to be sustained and
carried further, the majority of member states of the WTO, namely the African
countries have to be held together to resist the typical divide-and-rule devices
of the Governments of the North. The Department of Foreign Affairs efforts to advance
the developmental agenda of the South and strengthening co-operation amongst
developing countries through active participation in groupings of the South
should and must remain in force to address the challenges of underdevelopment,
economic and political marginalization. Our contribution towards post-conflict
reconstruction and development in
4. The Role of Civil Society in the
African
Those of us who have been around for a while know that
before Nepad there was a certain amount of agreement by the North and West that
One of the early criticisms of Nepad was that it was a
top-down process. That this should been so is only natural, considering the
state of the continent and the weaknesses of its institutions. In a document of
Nepad this was acknowledged, and an attempt has been made to address the
various criticisms that have been voiced with regard to Nepad. More information
is contained on the Peer Review Mechanism, which is an excellent attempt to
generate new processes pertaining good governance in
5. Resource allocation per departmental
programme
SANCO expresses gratitude towards the Department of Foreign Affairs
for the manner in which the department spends its budget during the 2005/06
financial year. Neither underspending nor overspending took place and this
confirms that the Department is on the right track in terms of managing its
financial resources. We are however not pleased with the current non-approved
allocations towards its 2007/2008 budget proposal and hoping that the portfolio
committee will definitely make progressive informed statements to the treasurer
on the department’s proposals.
6. Human Capital Management
We welcome the significant improve of representation of
black people, however we note that the employment equity act compliances need
further attention with regard to representation of people with disabilities and
women representation. We furthermore note there is still a huge gap between
Coloured, Indian and White employees e.g. at Legislature, Senior Officials and Managers
level there are 99 Whites in comparison with 17 Coloured and 32 Indian
employees.
7. Conclusion
We trust that this submission shall get your broad approval
and close scrutiny given the pivotal role of the Department of Foreign Affairs
to advance the African dream.
We thank
you…