DIRCO Annual Report

8. CAPITAL INVESTMENT

8.1. Capital investment, maintenance and asset management plan The department manages a property portfolio of leased and state-owned immovable assets, located mostly outside of the Republic of South Africa and used as chanceries, official residences and staff accommodation. Currently, 87% of the portfolio is leased under short- and medium-term lease contracts with private owners. The department developed rental norms with space and financial norms for all missions abroad. This has assisted the department to reduce the rental budget. The Foreign Service Act (FSA), 2019 (Act 26 of 2019) has been ascended by the President in May 2020, and gazetted in June 2020. In terms of section 9 of the FSA, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation is the custodian of all immovable assets outside of the Republic that were acquired for use by the Foreign Service.

The department’s aims with regard to the management of properties are to: • ensure economic, efficient and effective management of properties through its lifecycle • provide suitable and safe accommodation to missions abroad • adhere to government policies, standards and guidelines. State-owned properties comprise 12% of the property portfolio under management. During the period under review, no new investments were made and asset holdings remained unchanged. Section 5 (1) (a) of the Government Immovable Asset Management Act (GIAMA), Act 2007 (Act 19 of 2007) states that an immovable asset must be used efficiently. It becomes surplus to a user if it does not support its service delivery objectives at an efficient level and if it cannot be upgraded to that level. The department has identified 17 immovable assets that have been a surplus to its needs. These assets are on the department’s disposal list and will be prioritised as soon as the disposal policy is finalised.

20YY/20ZZ

20XX/20YY

Infrastructure projects None

(Over)/Under expenditure R’000

(Over)/Under sxpenditure R’000

Final appropriation R’000

Actual expenditure R’000

Final appropriation R’000

Actual wxpenditure R’000

New and replacement assets Existing infrastructure assets Upgrades and additions Rehabilitation, renovations and refurbishments Maintenance and repairs Infrastructure transfer

Current Capital Total

Department of International Relations and Cooperation

152