Egg on the face of ANC Secretary General

The African National Congress’s (ANC’s) Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula, has blamed the Democratic Alliance (DA) for the deterioration of the South African embassy in the Netherlands.

This is despite the responsibility falling to a portfolio that his party controls.

Mbalula’s comments were in response to a post by DA Federal Chairperson Helen Zille on X, formerly Twitter, pointing to a news report about the consulate’s state.

According to an investigation by Rapport, the embassy’s condition has deteriorated to the point that the local municipality has begun complaining about it.

The South African publication said that it had visited the building in The Hague last week and counted more than thirty broken windows.

It added that the fence surrounding the premises is also in a bad condition due to rust.

“How is it that the ANC ruins everything it touches? How can our beautiful embassy in Den Haag be so run-down?” Zille wrote.

The ANC’s Secretary General responded to the DA’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, saying that her choice to blame the ANC for “government incompetence” lacked courage and determination.

“The breaking of windows in some embassy is sheer government incompetence. It can’t be apportioned on the ANC as a party,” he wrote.

“Where there’s sheer incompetence by public works, which is run by a DA-appointed minister, you blame the ANC. This is absolute hypocrisy.”

Following the formation of the Government of National Unity after the 2024 National Elections, the DA was awarded six ministries, one of them being Public Works and Infrastructure, headed by Dean Macpherson.

The DA minister soon had his say on the matter, correcting Mbalula about which department is responsible for the upkeep of South African consulates.

“Hi Fikile, just a reminder that maintenance of embassies no longer resides with public works but Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) now,” Macpherson said in response to the ANC SG’s tweet.

As per the Foreign Service Act of 2019, assented to in 2020, Macpherson is correct in saying that DIRCO is responsible for South African embassies abroad.

The legislation lays the groundwork for the management, administration, accountability, and functioning of South Africa’s Foreign Service.

According to the Act, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, currently ANC’s Ronald Lamola, is the “custodian of all immovable assets outside the Republic which were acquired for use by the Foreign Service.”

“The Minister must act as caretaker of the immovable assets under their custodianship and must acquire and manage such immovable assets as contemplated in the Government Immovable Asset Management Act,” it reads.

Newsday contacted the ANC for comment about its responsibility for the embassy in Den Haag, but did not receive a response by publication.

Nearly R400 million in over expenditure

It was recently revealed in a response by Lamola to a Parliamentary question from ActionSA that South Africa spent R3.45 billion on foreign missions in the 2023/24 financial year.

Lamola told ActionSA that the country currently maintains 115 embassies worldwide and spent R950 million in Africa, R900 million in Asia and the Middle East, R813 million in Europe, and R465 million in the Americas and Caribbean.

However, DIRCO’s annual report for the financial year says that it spent R3.78 billion, just under R400 million more than its budget of R3.4 billion.

The most significant portion of this over expenditure was directed to Asia and the Middle East (R150 million), followed by Africa (R96 million), Europe (R83 million), and the Americas and Caribbean (R53 million).

Based on its response, the party pointed out that DIRCO does not spend this money proportionately, with R25.7 million spent on the embassy in the Central African Republic, R16.1 million on the embassy in Mauritania, and R15.1 million in Equatorial Guinea.

Similarly, South Africa spent over R27 million on the foreign mission in Tel Aviv, Israel, despite being declared non-operational.

The country also operates two or more embassies in eleven countries, which ActionSA claims is costly and unnecessary.

“South Africa maintains costly duplications in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh and Jeddah), India (New Delhi and Mumbai), and even in unstable or low-yield countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa and Lubumbashi),” it argued.

“Most of these functions could be managed with leaner alternatives – such as consulates, shared services, or rotational envoys – at a fraction of the cost.”