Madam Chair, I have to congratulate the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation for trying to give the department credibility, by giving immediate responses to issues such as that of Professor Karabus and the Gupta scandal, where she met Virendra Gupta to convey the government's displeasure over his actions. It is strange that she did not know beforehand. She is also to raise the issue with the Indian government. We are awaiting their response and her feedback.
With regard to her Deputy, Minister Fransman, we cannot say the same. He should spend more time focusing on his role as the Deputy Minister rather than involving himself in provincial party politics. [Interjections.] As we have seen with the Central African Republic and other countries, we just have to back the losing horse in all the races. Do we really think that in choosing sides, if our candidate loses, our future relationship with that country would ever recover? No, we are losing the battle to become a major role-player in Africa. Why not rather stay neutral and try to get parties around the table to get solutions, promote democracy and the open opportunity society, and let the people decide for themselves? [Interjections.]
We are slipping further back. Our membership in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Brics, was because of our stock exchange, the biggest in Africa. But Nigeria's stock market gained 35% and Uganda's 39% over the last year. Sub-Saharan Africa's growth averaged 4,8% over the past five years and Africa's 5,1%. Our 2,7% paints a grim picture, especially the last quarter's 0,9%.
Foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa leapt from US$6 billion in 2000 to US$34 billion last year. We have to ask the question as to where the problem is. And why did we not get our share? As a committee, we have not been allowed to visit any embassy to do oversight. We do not know how the money is being spent. All we know is that we have more embassies than most countries. All we hear is the progress of the department in doing oversight over their embassies. Up to now, we have had no reports.
I suggest an audit on the embassies to see if some of them can be consolidated. What benefit are they to the people of South Africa? How well are the staff equipped to enhance our tourism and economy? What are the results of every embassy as a unit?
There must be something wrong, otherwise the Minister of Tourism would not have announced in his Budget Vote that he was opening more tourist offices in Africa and Brazil. Why can't these offices be combined? Wouldn't there be huge overlapping? Can't he rather make use of our offices or train our staff to be up to his standards? I call upon the Minister to start a programme ... [Interjections.]