DIRCO Annual Report

As a result of the onslaught of the pandemic in early 2020, with the facilitation of DIRCO, the priorities outlined by South Africa for its Chairpersonship of the AU were shifted to saving lives and dealing with the social and economic impact of the pandemic, including to the fragile public health systems in many African countries. Branch: Africa continued to support national strategies to curb the spread of the pandemic by halting all contact activities such as structured bilateral mechanisms, interdepartmental, business and mission meetings, resorting to the use of technology to facilitate virtual meetings, remote operations of missions on the continent and the implementation of an appointment-based system to assist South Africans in need of consular assistance. The branch proved effective and ready to manage the immediate crisis response inverventions, which included consular assistance and managing the receipt of donations of PPE and medical supplies. The unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions such as travel bans, hampered planning and the execution of identified events. Some structured engagements were reformatted into virtual meetings or postponed.

DIRCO actively reached out to South Africa’s global partners for medical assistance to combat COVID-19. This has resulted in the donation of PPEs and the exchange of medical knowledge, including closer collaboration between medical and scientific research authorities. As with most branches, the Branch: Global Governance and the Continental Agenda continued its operations by shifting focus from physical to virtual meetings. In this regard, interactions, including the most recent roundtable discussion hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with Global Citizen, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), private sector and philanthropy organisations continued. The focus of most meetings held was on the COVID-19 pandemic and this meeting in particular focussed on the pivotal role of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator in helping bring the pandemic to an end globally. Other international meetings focussing on COVID-19 included the 31st Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Virtual G20 Leaders Summit.

Linking performance with budgets

Sub-programme expenditure

2020/21

2019/20

Final appropriation

(Over)under expenditure

Final appropriation

(Over)under expenditure

Subprogramme name

Actual expenditure

Actual expenditure

R’000

R’000

R’000

R’000

R’000

R’000

Ministry

6 358

6 357

1

7 094

6 223

871

Departmental Management

17 552 17 453 161 518 689 538 43 663

17 552 17 239 197 972 586 624 43 533

-

16 689 28 443 187 366 742 047 57 259 266 239 393 347

15 415 25 943 172 298 622 048 53 272 16 233 383 435

1 274 2 500

Audit Services

214

Financial Management

(36 454) 102 914

15 068 119 999

Corporate Services

Diplomatic Training, Research and Development

130

3 987

Foreign Fixed Assets Management

9 637

7 772

1 865

250 006

Office Accommodation

412 813

412 018

795

9 912

Total

1 358 532

1 289 067

69 465

1 698 484

1 294 867

403 617

Department of International Relations and Cooperation

42