LETTER: Sending envoys not needed

On February 6 President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his state of the nation address that he would be sending “a delegation of government and other leaders to various capitals on our continent and across the world” to explain “the many positions that we have taken and in particular the objectives we wish to achieve during our presidency of the G20”. 

This was two weeks before SA’s hosting of the G20 foreign and finance ministers, which one assumes has provided ample time and opportunity for all manner of discussions and interactions on exactly those positions. Why is this necessary now? Ramaphosa explained that “this delegation will interact with various key players on a variety of matters that affect SA’s interests”.

The G20 meetings provide the perfect forums to do just that. According to the presidency, SA will host “approximately 130 working group meetings and 23 meetings at ministerial level” building up to the G20 summit in November. That’s loads of time to interact and explain.

As for continental engagement, the president led the SA delegation to the 38th AU summit in Addis Ababa on February 15-16. According to the presidency, “the president also had bilateral meetings with a few countries on the continent to exchange views on issues of mutual concern”. 

So why on earth is the president burdening taxpayers even more by sending delegations on expensive jaunts all over the world when many of the key policymakers these same government officials and other leaders should be talking to are coming to SA? It’s a captive international audience at the highest policy level.

Sharon Horton-Herselman
Oudtshoorn

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