Information on the Mini Drug Master Plan of the Department on International Relations and Cooperation during the various Financial Years: 2007 – 2008, 2008 – 2009, and 2009 up to date

QUOTE

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO: 1051

PUBLISHED IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO: 9 of 30 MARCH 2010

Mr K S Mubu (DA) to ask the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation:

(1) Whether any amount was (a) budgeted for and (b) spent (i) in the (aa) 2007-08 and (bb) 2008-09 financial years and (ii) during the period 1 April 2009 up to the latest specified date for which information is available on her department’s mini drug master plan; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;

(2) what amount has been allocated to her department’s mini drug master plan for the 2010-11 financial year?   NW1199E

REPLY

(1) (a) No amount was budgeted for and (b) spent (i) in the (aa) 2007-08 and       (bb)  2008-09 financial years and  (ii) during the period 1 April 2009 up to the latest specified date for which information is available on her department’s mini drug master plan;

DIRCO has, in the past financial years, not been able to allocate budgetary resources or develop its own Mini Drug Master Plan as a contribution to the broader National Strategy of “towards a drug free South Africa”.  However, DIRCO has a legislative responsibility and mandate to co-ordinate all the domestic responses towards ensuring SA’s compliance with International Law and its international treaty obligations.  To this end the following international conventions to which SA is a State Party are instructive:

• The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961
• The Convention on Psychotropic Substances 1971 and
• United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988

Additional information

Several concrete actions have been undertaken to enhance the visibility and profile for Substance Abuse as a priority issue for South Africa and coinciding with the country’s 4th Administration of its democratic dispensation.  These initiatives include, among others, ensuring that the 13 National Departments listed in paragraph 53 of the Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act of 2008 begin to seriously assume their responsibility and accountability in the country’s policy of “towards a drug free South Africa”.  These National Departments are:

(a) Social Development;

(b) Justice and Constitutional Development;

(c) South African Police Service;

(d) Health;

(e) Education;

(f) Home Affairs;

(g) International Relations and Cooperation;

(h) Trade and Industry;

(i) Correctional Services;

(j) Labour;

(k) National Treasury;

(l) Arts and Culture;

(m) Sport and Recreation;

(o) Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries;

(p) Transport; and

(q) Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

The aforementioned Departments are expected to prioritise the issue of combating Substance Abuse by, among others:

• Appointing dedicated officials at the level of Chief Directors to serve as their Departments’ consistent representatives on the Central Drug Authority.
  

• Each to produce its own Mini Drug Master Plan (MDMP) aligned with the objectives of the Prevention of Substance Abuse Act of 2008 with adequate budgetary resources.

• Ensure that each Department contributes to the national efforts to combat Substance Abuse in line with the National Strategy encapsulated in the National Drug Master Plan (NDMP).

• Substance Abuse must become a Key Responsibility Area (KRA) in the Business Plans of every Department and that it should form a central part of the Performance Agreements of the Chief Directors and their Chief Directorates in all the aforementioned Departments.

In order to give effect to the new commitment and vision espoused by the Minister of Social Development, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation is under obligation to realign its internal operational Units, namely, the Sub directorate: Transnational Organised Crime and elevate its position to that of a fully fledged Directorate and, on another level, integrate into DIRCO’s Employee Wellness Centre (EWC) issues of public awareness on the dangers and harm caused by Substance Abuse.  The Minister’s concurrence with the following proposals is essential:

DIRCO undertakes to:

(a) elaborate its own Mini Drug Master Plan in the current financial year which, in terms of its substantive content, should integrate a Regional Approach (SADC) to the combating of Substance Abuse and other ancillary social evils;

(b) integrate issues of public awareness on the dangers and harm caused by substance abuse into its EWC programmes with the necessary budgetary support commencing in the current financial year onwards;

(a) create a fully fledged Directorate on Transnational Organised Crime by 31 December 2010;

(b) realign the Business Plans of the Chief Directorate: Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs to integrate Substance Abuse as a Key Responsibility Area (KRA) and to include this issue as part of the Chief Directorates’ Performance Agreement; and

(c) enhance the profile and visibility of combating Substance Abuse in its operational activities (e.g. activities regard International World Drug Day on 26 June).

(2) No amount has been allocated to the Department’s Mini Drug Master Plan for the 2010-11 financial year, but the situation will be rectified before the end of the current financial year

UNQOUTE