'DA wrong about Skweyiya'

2007-10-10 20:00

Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance (DA) got it wrong in criticising Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya for travelling abroad, his department said on Wednesday.

Not only did the DA overcalculate the number of overseas visits he made, the number of days he was out of the country and the cost, but wrongly asserted that Skweyiya's portfolio was "exclusively inward-looking", it said in a statement in his defence.

"The DA said the Minister had undertaken 19 visits and spent 109 days abroad at a cost of R1m."

In fact, he had undertaken 12 foreign visits and spent less than 60 days outside the country, the department said.

"Some of the visits were on direction from the Presidency or undertaken on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs."

Engagements mobilised at least R329m

Skweyiya also had international leadership responsibilities as president of the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (Unesco) management of social transformations programme.

It sought to deepen and integrate global social transformation policies.

"The cost of foreign travel during the financial year was just over R600 000 and not R1m as the DA stated," the department said.

"Although it is difficult to quantify the benefits entirely in monetary terms, in conducting a cost/benefit analysis for the financial year, international engagements mobilised at least R329m with additional and invaluable contributions to the programming and policy arena," the statement added.

It explained that the Social Development portfolio had grown considerably since 1994, leading to increased bilateral and multilateral interaction with almost all regions in the world.

"South Africa's successful social assistance programme, now reaching more than 12m people, has generated interest internationally."

'Signed agreement with Cuba'

Director-General Vusi Madonsela said: "The development of solid, long-term partnerships based on trust with the developing countries will strengthen the prospects of intensifying our poverty reduction programmes."

"In the current financial year, we have focused on retirement reform and other comprehensive social security processes, hence visits to Norway and Iceland to learn from their successful programmes," said Madonsela.

"We have also signed a co-operation agreement with Cuba which we expect will lead to successes in youth development and training."

On the social security front, SA had been asked to host the World Social Security Forum in 2010, an acknowledgement of the country's success in social security reform.

- SAPA