Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, guests on the gallery, the vision of the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, Dirco, is that the African continent should be prosperous, peaceful, democratic, nonracial, nonsexist and united, and should contribute to a world that is just and equitable.
So, the mission of Dirco is that it is committed to promoting South Africa's national interest and values, the African Renaissance and the creation of a better world for all.
Our former director-general stated in the department's Strategic Plan of 2011-14 that, in order to effectively take the work of the department forward, the department would continue to place a premium on enhancing the human resources and infrastructural capacity. The human resource strategy of the department seeks to align itself to the delivery of imperatives of the department.
Our President, in his state of the nation address, emphasised job creation. So, the department will obviously prioritise the filling of vacant funded posts to ensure the smooth functioning of the department.
The human resource strategy continues to prioritise the entrenchment of effective organisational processes, the management of Dirco's talent pool, effective employee resourcing and utilisation, and management capacity- building.
Necessary interventions are continuously sought and applied to support the Dirco workforce through, amongst others, training, capacity-building and employee wellness programmes. These programmes are also targeted at staff members in South African missions abroad, as well as their families.
South Africa's diplomatic and consular missions implement South Africa's foreign policy in order to enhance its international profile and serve as strategic mechanisms for the achievement of national interests. South Africa has 124 missions in 107 countries, which maintain South Africa's diplomatic relations with countries and organisations.
For the year 2011-12 Dirco's budget is R4,7 billion, of which R1,246 billion goes to Programme 1, namely Administration. This represents 27,1% of the total Budget Vote. This amount has, however, been decreased compared to last year's budget. South Africa is also recovering from the global economic slowdown. This has obviously affected the state's ability to raise revenue which has in turn affected the budget.
The Administration programme is responsible for the overall management of the department and for policy development. This programme is divided into six subprogrammes, namely Ministry, Management, Corporate Services, Diplomatic Academy, Foreign and Domestic Properties Management.
As of December 2010 the Department of International Relations and Co- operation had 2 897 approved posts, of which 2 382 have been filled. The breakdown of the numbers of staff in the department is as follows. In the head office there are about 1 583 staff members, in the missions about 667, in the diplomatic pool about 60, in Human Resources about 40, and in the cadet or internship section about 37 staff members. In the locally recruited personnel structure, where recruitment is done for the missions abroad, the number of approved posts is 2 481, of which 2 220 are already filled, which leaves us with 261 vacant posts.
In March 2011 the former director-general reported to the portfolio committee that the department had 499 vacant posts. This obviously is a concern to us, but apparently these are posts that will be covered over the medium-term period. It is important that these positions and vacancies be filled.
The committee also notes that the number of women working for the department is very low, standing at only 34%, and yet our target is 50%. The employment of people with disabilities - and I heard what the Deputy Minister said - now stands at 1,5% instead of reaching the target of 2%.
In building organisational capacity, Dirco needs and will take measures to increase its gender and disability representation by targeting women and people with disabilities at career exhibitions. It will also be working with disabled people's organisations for people with disabilities to send in their applications. The department should continue to present employment equity plans and guidelines to selection panels to target women at SMS level and people with disabilities. The department will also be revisiting the locally recruited personnel establishment.
There are also challenges faced by the department, obviously, and these include the high mobility of skilled resources - unfortunately all government departments draw from the same resource base.
Challenges in respect of employment-related matters are, amongst others, re- skilling resources to new and ever-increasing requirements. With South Africa's increasing involvement in international affairs, South Africa also has the task of filling critical vacancies in international institutions, such as the SADC and the AU. There is also the challenge of filling the quota reserved for South Africans in these international bodies.
In the 2011-14 Strategy Plan of the department the former director-general mentioned that through their Diplomatic Training, Research and Development branch they would set up the training of their personnel in order to build the necessary skills for their workforce so that the correct, skilled staff can be deployed to critical positions.
The committee is extremely happy that Dirco continues to have an unqualified audit report. It is, however, concerned with the budget cut for this year, especially in line with the increased work of the department. We hope that National Treasury will consider increasing this department's budget allocation.
Chairperson, before I conclude, I would like to say to the Minister, Deputy Minister and members of the House that while we obviously take note of all the conferences that are taking place in South Africa, I would like to add one more conference. Disabled persons will be hosting an international conference here in South Africa this year, and many international disabled persons will be coming to this conference.
We are also hosting the World Federation of the Deaf Congress in Durban in July. It will be the first time that we will be hosting this conference for deaf people on African soil. We want to thank this department for its assistance. You have helped us with the bid for it to be hosted here in South Africa. I thank the department for that. [Applause.]
Chairperson, I am happy to say that we as the ANC supports this Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]