Reassessing South Africa's diplomatic missions: balancing budget cuts and economic growth

IOL News

22-04-2025

In the midst of budget pressures, calls have been made by political parties to close some South African diplomatic missions across the world. This has been done previously by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).
The danger of such a blunt approach is that in pursuit of saving a few million in a budget of R2.6 trillion, we may actually do more harm than good to our fundamental task of stimulating economic growth and creating decent jobs. Is there a need to reconfigure and reposition our diplomatic presence? Without a doubt. This should be done in a way that attracts investment and boosts export opportunities and tourism for our economy.
Politicians are correct to demand savings across our diplomatic missions. Many of the buildings are too large and expensive. More affordable ones should be secured.
Should many of our diplomats spend less time at cocktail functions? Without a doubt. All departments should seek consistently to reduce wastage and improve efficiency, especially in the context of fiscal constraints and the need to ensure allocations to protect the poor, invest in critical infrastructure, and stimulate growth are prioritised.
What we need to avoid is a rush to close diplomatic missions in pursuit of saving money today but foregoing future investments and trade opportunities. Years of blunt budget cuts have shown the real dangers and unintended consequences of decapacitating the state.
The dangers of this will arise when South Africans are stranded overseas without access to an embassy to help them or issue an emergency passport, or South Africa being caught unaware of trade or political disputes at great cost to local industries.
SARS has shown a path to capacitating the state by investing in its personnel, management, infrastructure, and capacity, and whilst there is a bill to be paid today, society reaps the rewards with a growing economy in the future, thus ensuring the state has the revenue needed to fund the public services society depends upon.
A more nuanced approach is needed that balances short-term savings with long-term investments. Embassies, like all other state organs, need to be shaken up from time to time. Such a reconfiguration is overdue, but it requires a long-term vision coupled with greater efficiency.
Closing embassies saves money today, but it also denies greater trade and investment in the future. In the past few years, amongst others, we have closed our missions in Chicago, the financial hub of the American Midwest, and Finland, a relatively small nation, but also home to Nokia and other key start-ups, and one with deep historic ties to South Africa and the region.
Does squeezing DIRCO's relatively modest budget and compelling the closure of missions help boost investment from Chicago or open greater export opportunities to Finland? Likely not. What we should support DIRCO to do, with the support of key departments, e.g. Home Affairs, Tourism, Higher Education and Training, and most critically Trade, Industry and Competition, is to support a repivoting of our missions' mandates and provide them the tools to attract badly needed investment, export opportunities, and tourism.
Our missions need to have strong political heads who can ensure our bilateral relations with our host countries are healthy and alert government to issues needing interventions long before they arise. The turbulence in our relations with the US is a case in point.
The other key mandate of our missions must be to boost trade and investment. All missions must be required to meet set targets annually and be provided with the necessary technical support to achieve this, including from key economic sectors. The recent announcement by the Minister for Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr. Parks Tau, that DTIC currently does not have any trade attaches at our missions, must be an alarm bell and a dire warning about the dangers of recklessly cutting key departments' budgets.
The point of deploying strong trade attaches is to unlock trade and investment opportunities and tackle blockages to South African exports. This fundamental task is very difficult if we do not have skilled people in place to do so. DIRCO's recent deployment of a senior agricultural attaché to our embassy in the US is a welcome intervention to resolving long-simmering agricultural trade issues.
Tourism is a major growth sector and employer with over 800 000 jobs and with massive untapped potential. Despite the best efforts of the Department of Tourism over the years, we still have much greater space to unlock its potential. This requires supporting our embassies with the necessary technical support to boost tourism arrivals, including opening more direct flights from key tourism markets.
Home Affairs' investments in staff, filling critical vacancies, enabling online visa applications, and digitising operations is key to boosting tourism as we will never be able to have an embassy in every single corner of the world.
Embassies should be tasked to identify international education opportunities for young South Africans. This will not only boost their own career and earning potential but bring the skills the economy needs to grow. This is exactly why China, under Deng Xiao Ping, sent thousands of students to study in the US, Europe, and Japan in the 1970s.
The recent de facto enslavement of South Africans desperate for work in Myanmar is a reminder of why we need to have a presence across the world. Similarly, for our own tourists whose passports may be stolen and thus stranded and unable to travel. In a globalised era where organised crime has no borders, our law enforcement and security organs need to have access to their peers to be able to protect South Africa from such activities.