We need diplomats of integrity
A DIPLOMAT is normally a person of high integrity who represents the best interests of his or her country’s government in a foreign country.
Last November, Business Day reported that “South African diplomats were among the most pampered” in the world, with the State footing a multibillion-rand bill for perks that include “private schooling, luxury cars and eye-watering living allowances”.
Furthermore, South Africa had 126 foreign missions, 2 852 employees, and the average cost per mission was R20 million. This was attributed to the legacy of former Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana DlaminiZuma, who wanted to have an embassy in every African country.
The criteria for a good South African foreign affairs officer include: patriotism; loyalty; integrity; professionalism; “tact, discretion and self-control”; intelligence, dedication and “security clearance”.
Recent media reports suggest there have been some serious security breaches in the selection of some diplomats. In October, the Sunday Times revealed that South Africa’s High Commissioner to Singapore, Hazel Ngubeni, a former SAA air hostess, was a convicted drug trafficker who had spent between 1999 and 2001 in a US jail for this offence.
It was also reported that Ngubeni had also been arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on September 20, 1995, for drug smuggling, but was acquitted because a key witness refused to testify. She did not declare her criminal record during the vetting process.
According to Professor Siphamandla Zondi of the University of Pretoria, the violation of ethical conduct “can cause serious damage both to the stature of the profession of diplomacy and South Africa’s stature.
“It does a lot more harm to us as a country than we realise and it erodes the trust in diplomatic immunity.”
According to Ngubeni, her father had been in the liberation Struggle, and this may explain her political connections and credentials.
To its credit, the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) acted swiftly and terminated her employment contract. However, Dirco appears to be dragging its feet in another case of alleged impropriety by a senior diplomat.
In yet another newspaper exposé, Obed Mlaba, South Africa’s High Commissioner to the UK, was accused of managing the embassy “like a spaza shop”.
It was alleged that he was using his office in London to solicit funds for his personal home projects, and to revive the defunct African Wanderers football team.
One businessman told The Sunday Times: “The first time I went to his office to introduce myself, he told me his daughter has a waste management company and asked if I could help her.”
In March 2014, Business Day noted that “it is in Britain where we lay the groundwork for our relationships with the industrialised world. The quality and vitality of our diplomacy in London, because it is where we still have so many friends, has never been more important”.
Mlaba took up his London posting in 2013, shortly after he had allegedly failed his security vetting. The problem was a “potential conflict of interest relating to the non-disclosure of his financial interests”. A high commissioner who fails a state security test is a danger to national security.
Tender
Mlaba also failed to disclose that he was implicated in the Manase forensic report when he was the mayor of eThekwini. According to the report, Mlaba had influenced the award of a R3 billion waste-volume reduction tender to a company in which his two daughters were shareholders.
The Manse report recommended that the supply chain management process for the Solid Waste Reduction plant was “grossly compromised”, and should be cancelled, and those implicated charged for “negligence and collusion”.
Who is responsible for making this mediocre political ambassadorial redeployment? In an e-mail to The Sunday Times, Mlaba’s lawyer, Sarosh Zaiwalla, provides the answer: “The post of the high commissioner in the UK is in the hands of the President of South Africa. Our client was notified by the President of South Africa to take up the position as high commissioner. The President would have only appointed our client after investigating all required compliances.
“This is a matter between the President’s office and state security and is therefore of no concern to our client.”
Of course, those who are paid from the public purse are expected to display exemplary conduct at all times.
The debate in public life is about how much lower the ethics, integrity and morality bar can be set, and who establishes the norms.
Whenever South Africans believe that we have hit rock bottom in terms of ethics, integrity and morality, the ANC government demonstrates that the bar can be set even lower.