South Africa (Hansard, 4 May 1994)

§ 10. Mr. Canavan
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will arrange to meet South African political leaders to discuss the outcome of the elections.

§ 11. Mr. Bennett
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures Her Majesty's Government are taking to assist the new Government of South Africa to consolidate democracy in that country.

§ 12. Sir Michael Neubert
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he next expects to make an official visit to South Africa to discuss the outcome of the recent elections there.

§ Mr. Hurd
I am sure that the House will join me in warmly congratulating the South African people on their remarkable achievement. They have set the world an example of peaceful democratic change. We congratulate Mr. Mandela on his victory and look forward with confidence to working with him and his colleagues in Government.
713 Britain expects to provide more than £100 million of help to South Africa over the next three years. That includes £60 million of bilateral aid, plus investments by the Commonwealth Development Corporation and our share of European Community assistance. That is a sizeable amount—almost double the £35 million that we have given in the past three years. The emphasis will be on quality, concentrating our help in crucial areas and focusing on technical assistance. We have also been training about 1,000 South Africans a year. We shall discuss priorities for our aid programme with the new Government, including help to reduce poverty and to improve education and health care, and we stand ready to help with restructuring and training the police and the public service. On the military side, we have already been asked to help with integrating a new national defence force. The Ministry of Defence has had detailed discussions in South Africa and has come back with some worked-up proposals.
Britain is also playing a leading role in working out a package of European Union measures to define the future trading relationship between the Union and South Africa, technical assistance and political dialogue.

§ Mr. Canavan
I join the Secretary of State in congratulating the African National Congress and, particularly, Nelson Mandela, whom I wish well in his efforts to form a Government of national unity to unite all the people of South Africa, whatever their colour or ethnic origin. Will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that his statement is an offer of maximum assistance to enable the new South African Government, the new democracy and its economy to flourish and for South Africa to be fully welcomed into the international community, including membership of the Commonwealth if that is its wish?

§ Mr. Hurd
I have given the details. It is a strong and very practical British interest that the new South Africa should succeed. I am sure that if South Africa decides to re-enter the Commonwealth it will be welcomed back with warm enthusiasm.

§ Mr. Bennett
I echo the congratulations that have been expressed, but does the Foreign Secretary accept that too often celebrations turn to tears? Will he ensure that some of the money in the aid package to which he referred is spent on ensuring that the poorest people in South Africa see a rapid improvement in the appalling conditions in which they have to live so as to make it clear to them that exercising the vote has produced worthwhile improvements to their lives?

§ Mr. Hurd
We have to focus our aid, which is limited in its total, on those areas in which we think that British help can be most effective. The problem that the hon. Gentleman raises cannot be solved from outside. It will depend on policies pursued inside South Africa and it is crucially important, as the hon. Gentleman would agree, that the new Government of national unity should follow policies that encourage growth and outside investment.

§ Sir Michael Neubert
Once the understandable electoral exuberance has faded and economic expectations come more sharply into focus, will it not be increasingly relevant to remember that half South Africa's foreign investment is [...]itish and that Britain is one of South Africa's major trading partners? Does my right hon. Friend 714 have any specific plans to strengthen Britain's commercial and industriai role in bringing greater prosperity to the newly enfranchised South African people?

§ Mr. Hurd
It is very important that British business, with the interests in South Africa that my hon. Friend mentions, should follow carefully the opportunities and prospects that are now opening up. They are different and there will certainly be difficulties. The road ahead is bound to include a good many rocks. However, if British business follows the developments with the care that those developments deserve, I hope and believe that the future for British interests and British investment in South Africa will be bright.

Mr. Robert Hughes
Having had the privilege of witnessing at first hand the election that took place last week, may I ask the Foreign Secretary to agree that it was a most massive and convincing approval of democracy? Given the immense tasks of reconstruction to end the legacies of apartheid, will the Foreign Secretary guarantee that he will not simply regard South Africa as yesterday's problem but will realise that it is an issue in which he must keep an overriding interest in the future?

§ Mr. Hurd
I hope that what I have said today already shows that. Of course the election difficulties were very great and they have not all been overcome, as the news today shows. Nevertheless, it has been a remarkable feat. I am grateful—and the House should be grateful—to hon. Members on both sides of the House who took part and helped to ensure that.

§ Sir Michael Marshall
Does my right hon. Friend accept that those who have been in touch with political leaders in South Africa in recent weeks are aware of their keen interest in having support for the maintenance of their new democracy in practical terms in respect of assistance to political parties and for the new Parliament itself? While the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association will wish to play a full part in that, will my right hon. Friend assure us that the Government will consider practical ways to carry forward that programme?

§ Mr. Hurd
Indeed, and we shall look to the Westminster Foundation, which is already active in South Africa, to take up—and, where it thinks it justified, to finance—projects to help advance democracy based on parties.

Dr. John Cunningham
The Opposition join the Foreign Secretary in expressing our great joy at the ending of the dreadful tyranny of apartheid, and we send our warmest congratulations to our friends in the African National Congress, Mr. Nelson Mandela, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, Mr. Mendi Msimang and many others. Should we not also record our respect for the role played by Mr. de Klerk in the historic victory for democracy in South Africa? Does the right hon. Gentleman accept, however, that this is simply the starting point in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the social and economic fabric of a great country? Not only do we owe a great historic debt to that country, but we have significant economic links with it.
For all those reasons, will the right hon. Gentleman work in the European Union, the United Nations and the 715 Commonwealth, and with the Treasury within the British Government, to seek significantly to increase the package of support to which he has referred today?

§ Mr. Hurd
I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that this is the end of one chapter—the chapter of apartheid —and the starting point of a new one. It begins with great hope, but it will certainly include many difficulties, as everyone agrees. Those difficulties must be solved by South Africans within South Africa, but the world outside can help—through investment, through the sort of technical assistance that I have summarised today, and through trade. That is why we and the Germans have paid particular attention in recent months to the new trading arrangements that South Africa will need with the European Union.