YACOOB ABBA OMAR: SA should follow principled approach to Ukraine war 🔒
International relations and co-operation minister Naledi Pandor. Picture: ALON SKUY
The problem with this argument is that being on the “right side of history” would have meant SA joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 which, even by US accounts, was based on false premises and turned out to be a costly disaster. The relationship between the Union Buildings and foreign affairs, which addresses questions of sovereignty and independence, is probably as important as that between the president and the finance minister over the impact of the budget on the economy.
This will mean being guided by the mantra of ‘fewer, but better’, when we cut our diplomatic suit according to the cloth of available funding The department’s latest annual report indicated that it had a 15% vacancy rate, above the 10% national average vacancy rate. The previous director-general had been implicated in a dodgy deal in New York, for SA’s mission to the UN.
This will mean being guided by the mantra of “fewer, but better”, when we cut our diplomatic suit according to the cloth of available funding. There is a crying need for SA to reduce its overseas missions and improve the quality of their work by retaining its experienced upper echelons at home.