- At most embassies, there are technological issues as well as staff shortages.
- South Africa's embassies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam reported their challenges to the committee.
South Africa's missions in parts of Asia have no money for overseas travel or exhibitions, visas cannot be printed because of broken printers – a situation that has prompted an official at one mission to describe their embassy as a "child-headed household".
These and other problems were reported by embassies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam to the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation.
On Wednesday, the committee was briefed by heads of mission in these Asian nations about the challenges they face.
At South Africa's mission in Jakarta, Indonesia, the embassy building is housed in area that ambassador Mpetjane Lekgoro described as not clean.
He also explained how the embassy works with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco).
Lekgoro said while the visa system was fully functional, the mission was unable to print visas.
"There is one Dirco official and one locally recruited person. Visa applications are accepted at the mission directly from applicants or agencies, including holders of official and diplomatic passports.
The visa printer is not functional and DHA is procuring new printers for distribution to the mission.
"Dirco is providing the infrastructure to host the current home affairs visa system on its network. DHA provides training and technical support on the visa system and all its required resources, like visa printers and labels," he said.
Approved visas are issued with a handwritten and signed visa label. Those rejected are formally informed through a letter.
In Vietnam, the chancery cost to the South African embassy is about US$26 645 (R491 828.52) annually.
The official residence costs around US$8 000 (R146 994.41) and the rental is paid quarterly.
Due to the vacant defence attache position, the mission currently has the assets belonging to the South African National Defence Force in storage. Another R8 000 is spent on storing the assets.
Generally, R1 equals 1 385.50 Vietnamese dong.
Ambassador Vuyiswa Tulelo, head of mission in Vietnam, said trade statistics for 2024 showed a significant increase in trade between South Africa and Vietnam.
She said:
South African exports increased from R6.5 billion in 2023 to R10.5 billion in 2024, while imports from Vietnam increased from R18.9 billion in 2023 to R20.7 billion in 2024.
"Positively, the trade deficit with Vietnam decreased from R12.4 billion in 2023 to R10.2 billion in 2024. In addition, in 2024, South African oranges also gained market access to Vietnam, also contributing to SA's increase in trade".
In Malaysia, rentals are paid quarterly for the chancery and the residences of transferred officials.
Jabulisile Msibi, chargé d'affaires of the South African High Commission to Malaysia, said there was no official residence because there was no head of mission.
She said the mission is basically "a child-headed household".
"The quarterly rental for the chancery is R597 730. It's paid quarterly, and we signed a new contract in 2024 for a period of four years. My residence as first secretary, quarterly, is R97 189.80 and it expires on 30 June this year.
"The corporate services official's rental is the same as my rental and his contract expires this month. The defence attache's rental (quarterly) is R149 522. The cost of living is very high," she said.
The second secretary's rental is R80 991.50 per quarter and that agreement will end in 2027.
On tourism, Msibi said the mission doesn't get much support.
She said:
We also need to hold roadshows where we get a space and maybe exhibit our material in an open space, be it a mall or a public area.
"Because of the limited funds and other aspects, what we normally do would be at the reception (area) of our building and stand there, put up some material and distribute to whoever is passing by".
Msibi said the mission's backup system crashed in November 2024.
"The mission lost three months of backup information. The mission connected a backup external hard-drive to another computer and moved the computer to the third secretary: administration office. The server (hardware) is old and most of the time the server is very slow and that makes the desktop to be slow too," she said.
IP phones, which connect to the phone service via the internet, were not working, and ICT office switches were broken and faulty, Msibi said.
MK Party MP Wesley Douglas called on the committee to engage with Dirco to iron these challenges out.
ANC MP Mogodu Moela concurred with Douglas.