The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) is the

foreign ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

of the

South African government The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary republic with three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating in a parliamentary system. Legislative authority is held by the Parliament of South Africa. Executive authority ...

. It is responsible for South Africa's relationships with foreign countries and international organizations, and runs South Africa's

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

s. The department is headed by the

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation is the foreign minister of the Government of South Africa, South African government, with political responsibility for South Africa's Foreign relations of South Africa, foreign relations an ...

, currently

Naledi Pandor Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor (née Matthews; born 7 December 1953) is a South African politician, educator and academic serving as the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation since 2019. She has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) ...

. Formerly known as the Department of Foreign Affairs, it was renamed the Department of International Relations and Cooperation by President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...

in May 2009. In the 2010 national budget, it received an appropriation of 4,824.4 million

rand The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...

, and had 4,533 employees. According to

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

estimates, 2019

official development assistance Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure aid, foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in ...

from South Africa decreased to US$106 million. In 2022, when

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

asked for humanitarian medical and food aid,

AfriForum AfriForum is a South African non-governmental organisation focused mainly on the interests of Afrikaners, a subgroup of the country's white population. AfriForum has been frequently described as a white nationalist, alt-right, and Afrikaner nation ...

managed to obtain an interdict against a pending R50 million payout by the department, labelling it "squandering of taxpayers' money". The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation,

Supra Mahumapelo Supra Obakeng Ramoeletsi Mahumapelo is a South African politician and musician. He served as the Provincial Secretary of the African National Congress North West Provincial Leadership from 2011 until August 2018. He previously served as Speaker ...

, decried the ruling due to its believed impact on South Africa's solidarity work with countries like Cuba.

References

External links

Official website

Foreign affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

Foreign relations of South Africa

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

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