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Honourable Chairperson, The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) congratulates
Ms Maite Nkoane-Mashabane in her honorous appointment as the Minister
in the new Department of International Relations and Co-operation. In
my long association with the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs I
am tempted to say that Minister you have also inherited an excellent
Team of men and women who have always endeavoured to be the best in
what they do.

The Hon. Minister recently indicated to this Portfolio Committee that
the International financial and economic contraction was making huge
impact on the delivery capacity of the Department on pronounced
governmental priorities as articulated in the State of the Nation
Address (2009). A serious plea from some of us is that the African
Agenda be spared any significant cuts. South Africa has an historical
and moral obligation to assist in the culmination of the Third World
Project bequeathed to Africa through the first Pan African Conference
in London (1900), the Leaque against Imperialism and Colonialism in
Brussels in (1927), the Bandung Principles of 1955, and the Afro-Asian
Peoples Solidarity in Cairo (1957). The Third World Agenda was and
still is the pursuit of freedom, justice, peace, democracy and
development. This African liberation project is not complete.

Hon Minister the IFP welcomes programme 3 on Public Diplomacy, in
particular the focus on the domestic sphere. Too often when it is
mentioned that the President was responsible for South Africa?s
foreign policy, the public is left with the impression of a state
centric foreign policy dictated exclusively by the President and the
few elite. Diplomatic workshops, conferences and public meetings are
therefore absolutely necessary to involve the South African public in
the process of foreign policy formulation.

Often in International Trade Relations Countries that wield the most
economic muscle write the rules of Trade. It is like the dictum the
one who controls the economy and the finances controls also the
political State. It was therefore not accidental that South Africa
shared the same predicament with the Republic of China when it came to
the visit of the Dalai Lama to South Africa. It was a classic case of
the dictates of economic dominance and dependence. Here exists a vexed
universal question that of promoting the culture of Human Rights
within a chaotic atmosphere of relations between States.

While the US and the Quarted led by the former Prime Minister of
Britain Mr. Tony Blair work to persuade Israel to accept and actively
support a truly independent, and sovereign Palestinian State, South
Africa should concentrate on bringing about the unity and co-operation
of the Palestinian people. This factionalism is an impediment to
successful political negotiations with Israel.

The IFP supports this budget vote.