South Africa ‘given warning of aid cut’
Pretoria says decision could damage relations with UK
London/Johannesburg: Foreign Secretary William Hague insisted on Wednesday that Britain discussed its decision to cut off aid to South Africa with officials there, after Pretoria reacted angrily to what it said was a shock announcement.
Britain currently sends £19 million ($29 million, 22 million euros) of bilateral aid a year to South Africa, but said Tuesday it will stop the payments by 2015 because South Africa was the continent’s economic powerhouse.
But Pretoria claimed the decision had been “unilateral” and warned it could damage relations between the two countries.
Hague said Britain would clear up any “bureaucratic confusion” about the announcement, but said it should not have come as a surprise to South African officials.
“Discussions have been going on about that for some months, it therefore shouldn’t have been a surprise,” he told BBC radio.
“No doubt there is some confusion or bureaucratic confusion about that perhaps, on the South African side, but I’m not going to fling accusations about that.
“We will be holding in the near future our annual bilateral forum where ministers of all departments discuss things together. If there’s any confusion about this I’m sure we will clear that up then.”
Britain’s International Development Secretary Justine Greening had said her government’s relationship with South Africa - a former British dominion - should be based on trade rather than aid following its transition from apartheid to a “flourishing democracy”.
