International Relations (IR) Committee Launches People-Centred Oversight Mechanism in Western Cape

The Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation yesterday successfully launched the People-Centred Oversight Mechanism in the Western Cape where there were traditional leaders, academics, students and representatives from different non-governmental organisations.

The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Supra Mahumapelo, said the People-Centred Oversight Mechanism is an initiative of the committee to ensure that ordinary citizens in villages, townships and small towns have a say in foreign policy and international trade relations that impact on their lives.

The committee heard from the Western Cape legislature that no one must be left behind when it comes to international and trade relations and these policies have an impact on job creation and the economy of the country.

There was a call to link trade agreements negotiated by the DIRCO and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition with local governments that are affected by those agreements. That will ensure that municipalities will have a say in these agreements and implementation is at local level.

Student representatives from the universities of the Western Cape, Cape Town and Stellenbosch appealed for opportunities for students to be able to participate in international trade delegations and in the drafting of policies on international relations. They called for inclusion in decision making as the future leaders of the country.

The women’s wing of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa welcomed the opportunity to engage with the committee. The role of the DIRCO is significant and the management of the influx of refugees is a challenge that requires engagement with all stakeholders. There is little engagement with traditional leaders in this regard. With the incorporation of the traditional leadership, social cohesion will be enhanced.

With reference to the United States (USA), the opposition parties in the Western Cape Legislature reiterated the need for the province to send a positive message to the international community that South Africa is a united country especially when there are utterances that impact on the economic policy of South Africa.

Labour unions positively viewed the engagement and called for more such dialogues so that workers on the ground can understand what foreign policy is and informed the committee that there is a need for structured platforms so that information reaches the workers. A call was made to the DIRCO to use social media platforms to disseminate information to inform workers and ordinary people on the ground about what is happening internationally.

COSATU representatives called for all international agreements to translate into job creation in the country. The representative called for migrant workers to be protected and there should be a labour impact assessment in countries that export goods to South Africa. The impact of imported goods from the European Union and China have an impact on local jobs.

Africa’s Growth and Opportunity Act was passed as part of the Trade and Development Act of 2000 in the USA. It provides duty- free access to the USA market for almost all products from more than 40 eligible sub-Saharan African countries including South Africa. The impact of the 30% increase on tariffs on exports needs to be engaged on.

The committee heard the sentiment among the people about the importance of the oversight mechanism and their hope for its effectiveness. Representatives also called for monitoring and evaluation of the oversight mechanism, transparency and accessibility. The committee will upon the end of the launch proramme at all the nine provinces, develop monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the programme.

The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Supra Mahumapelo said that going forward the DIRCO will provide reports on Trade Agreements and their impact on a quarterly basis. The reports will include the volume of minerals/products produced and released in SA for export. He said: “ Together with the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour we must be able to engage with our counterparts on the trumpeting tariffs of the US.”

Mr Mahumapelo said workers in South Africa must be able to understand how the utterances of the US affect the economic growth of South Africa. The People-Centred Oversight Mechanism has been launched in Mpumalanga, North West and Gauteng provinces. The committee strives to complete to launch the programme in the remaining five provinces by early next year 2026.”