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The Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation will on 21 and 22 April conduct oversight visits to Windhoek and Walvis Bay in Namibia as part of the committee’s assessment of the state-owned properties used by South African missions abroad.
 
The oversight visits will also determine the Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s readiness for full implementation of the Foreign Service Act 2019, which regulates the custodianship of state-owned properties and land parcels used by missions abroad.

The committee undertook an initial oversight visit in 2018 and found the state-owned properties were either neglected or in some cases badly vandalised, with systems and furniture removed or stolen from houses. Houses were rented and some were uninhabitable, although they are part of state-owned properties. The houses were unoccupied due to poor maintenance.

The Auditor General’s findings and the committee’s recommendations raised concerns. The situation caused a trend of fruitless and wasteful expenditure in several missions abroad, because the missions continued to pay for rates and municipal services, and security guard and cleaning services for unoccupied houses to keep the properties in a good state, in accordance with the by-laws of the cities in which they are located.

The department told the committee that it is addressing all the concerns raised. Hence the committee has resolved to conduct oversight visits to Windhoek and Walvis Bay to establish whether progress has been achieved.
 
The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Supra Mahumapelo, said: “The findings of this verification oversight will be factored in during the coming budget vote discussions and also find expression in the oversight strategy of the committee, in the form of its strategic plan, to enable monitoring and evaluation of the undertakings by the department to address the situation in all the South African missions abroad.”

Issued by The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation, Supra Mahumapelo