LONDON: Britain announced yesterday that it will cut off direct aid to South Africa in 2015, citing its status as Africa’s biggest economy.
London currently gives £19m ($29m) of bilateral aid a year to Pretoria, down from a peak of more than £40m in 2003.
Britain said its relationship with South Africa should now be based on trade rather than aid following its transition from apartheid to a “flourishing democracy”.
“South Africa has made enormous progress over the past two decades, to the extent that it is now the region’s economic powerhouse and Britain’s biggest trading partner in Africa,” International Development Secretary Justine Greening was due to tell a conference of African ministers and business leaders in London.
“I have agreed with my South African counterparts that South Africa is now in a position to fund its own development,” she was to say.
But Pretoria greeted yesterday’s “unilateral announcement” with thinly veiled anger, warning that South African government warning relations were at risk.
“This is such a major decision with far reaching implications on the projects that are currently running and it is tantamount to redefining our relationship,” the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement.
“Ordinarily, the UK government should have informed the government of South Africa through official diplomatic channels of their intentions and allowed for proper consultations to take place.”
“This unilateral announcement no doubt will affect how our bilateral relations going forward will be conducted.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron has repeatedly vowed to protect the 0.7 percent of national income that it spends on overseas aid from his government’s austerity drive.
AFP
