How many overseas visits has the Minister undertaken since May 2009 and days has the Minister spent on foreign soil in her official capacity
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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO: 227 (NW241E)
PUBLISHED IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 2-2011 OF 18 FEBRUARY 2011
Dr CP Mulder (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation
- How many (a) overseas visits has she undertaken since May 2009 and (b) days has she spent on foreign soil in her official capacity;
- (a) which countries did she visit, (b)(i) how many and (ii) which of the visits were undertaken on invitation of a host nation, (c) what amount (i) did her department and (ii) any other government department pay for each of her visits, (d) how many officials of her department accompanied her on each specified oversees visit and (e) what did the cost incurred for the officials with regard to each specified journey;
- What was the purpose of each specified overseas visit?
- (a) how many overseas visits have officials of her department undertaken in exercising their duty since May 2009, (b) what did the cost for each specified overseas visit amount to for each official and (c) what was the purpose of each specified visit?
REPLY:
(1) (a) Since May 2009 until March 2011, 38 trips were undertaken,
(b) 206 days were spent on foreign soil in official capacity;
(2) Various countries were visited during this period and in some instances a country was visited more than once in the period as from May 2009 until March 2011 – Sudan, USA, Venezuela, Brazil, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Egypt, Sri Lanka, India, Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba, Ethiopia, China, Switzerland, UK, Ghana, Uganda, Namibia, Mexico, Tanzania, Belgium, Nigeria, Libya, France, DRC, Russia, Lesotho, Italy, Swaziland, Kenya, Angola and Zimbabwe
(b) All the visits were for execution of official business: Summit, JC, Bilateral, Peace efforts in the Continent, UN Commitments, etc
(c) A total amount of R 21 002 383 was incurred by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation,
(d) Minister accompanied by between two to eight officials, and
(e) the cost incurred as indicated above includes accompanying officials for each visit.
(3) All the visits were in Minister’s official capacity.
(4)
(a) Since May 2009 to date 2853 overseas visits were undertaken by officials from the department,
(b) In total the visits amounted to R 40 043 174.86
(c) the visits were undertaken in the execution of official duties and include officials who were being posted to serve in countries abroad
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