Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to participate in the SA/DRC Ministerial Meeting

Pretoria- International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will on Thursday, 29 October 2009, Co-chair the SA/ DRC Ministerial meeting in Pretoria ahead of the sixth SA/DRC Bi-National Commission scheduled to take place on 30 October 2009.  

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will be accompanied by the Director-General Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba and Senior government officials. The Ministerial meeting will mark her first participation in the SA/DRC forum since her appointment to her current portfolio at International Relations and Cooperation.

The SA/ DRC Ministerial meeting takes place within the context of consolidating African Agenda and strengthening bilateral relations between South Africa and DRC and also to assist the country to develop capacity to effectively manage its programmes within the Post conflict to develop capacity to effectively manage its programmes within the Post Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD) programme

In addition Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane is expected to hold a series of bilateral commissions with her counterparts that are in line with the priorities identified by SA/ DRC government. These include the following:-

• Politics and Governance
• Security and Defence
• Social and Humanitarian Affairs
• Economic; Finance and Infrastructure

The following Government Departments are currently active in the DRC in capacity building programmes:

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation is assisting its DRC counterpart in a capacity building programme which includes the facilitation of the second phase of training of DRC diplomats. The refurbishment of the Diplomatic Academy has been completed. A donated consignment of 30 computers and a server were delivered to the DRC Diplomatic Academy to assist with this training. The training of the DRC diplomats has now expanded to at least three training sessions per annum and also include English language training.

The Department of Public Service and Administration is currently involved in several projects with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), namely the Census, Anti-Corruption and Decentralisation projects. The Census project, aimed at assisting the DRC to establish effective control of its civil service, has been finalised in Kinshasa, Bas Congo and Bandundu provinces and is currently being rolled out to the remaining provinces.  

PALAMA has done excellent work in supporting the establishment of a National School for Public Administration (ENA) that has started with training of public service officials. PALAMA will also continue to support training for management and leadership development, re-building of public administration and human resource planning.

The Department of Home Affairs provides capacity-building in population and immigration matters, the training of trainers, the identification of relevant equipment and infrastructure technology transfer which could be supplied by Home Affairs, the development of standard operating procedures regarding immigration and population matters, and the development of a national population register as well as identification cards production.

The Department of Defence and Military Veterans continues its support to the DRC Defence Force (FARDC) in terms of the registering of soldiers and the integration process in general. It assists with the training of the newly integrated units as well as the provision of essential basic services by the military.

The South African Police Services facilitates the development of a medium term organisational development plan for policing in the DRC, provides technical assistance and mentoring, facilitates the development of a regulatory framework for policing, operational development support and infrastructure development.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) continues to support the Bas Congo Spatial Development Initiative (SDI). The Bas Congo corridor provides Kinshasa with a crucial link to the coast and highlights trade and investment opportunities in the DRC.
 

For more information please contact Nomfanelo Kota on 082 459 3787

Department of International Relations and Cooperation
Private Bag x152
Pretoria
0001

28 October 2009