SA’s diplomatic tiff with Europe is a storm in a teacup
Five ambassadors regret the misunderstanding and say they were merely offering advice to the presidency on improving foreign investment
Ambassadors to SA from the US, Germany, the UK, Switzerland and the Netherlands have denied that they directly “warned” President Cyril Ramaphosa that corruption could stymie his investment drive and say they were offering the presidency advice on possible barriers to investment in SA. The ambassadors for these countries — representing about 75% of total foreign investment in this country — met department of international relations & co-operation minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Monday, following weekend media reports that they had submitted a joint memorandum to the presidency expressing concerns among investors about rule of law in SA. In a statement released on Monday, the department revealed that the document in question — which is understood to have been prepared in June 2018, but provided to presidency economic adviser Trudi Makhaya in October — was not a formal memorandum, but a “discussion document”. It was prepared for Ramaphosa’s big investment conference in October 2018. “The h...
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