Envoys at the global climate conference ended on Sunday in Durban left late-night sessions shaking their heads about their South African hosts, saying in rather undiplomatic speech they had let the process go off the rails.
Pretoria, however, hailed its diplomacy as a rousing success, saying South Africa showed it could punch above its weight in the global arena.
Such is the disconnect between South Africa, which sees itself as an emerging power championing African causes, and other nations which question its ability to keep pace with global affairs.
The gap is expected to grow larger as Africa’s biggest economy tries to exert more authority on the international stage by pressing for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and having one of its former foreign ministers elected head of the African Union.
South Africa has already found itself this year on the wrong side of the mainstream argument over Libya and Ivory Coast.
Western powers also raised their eyebrows when, to please China, Pretoria blocked a visit by the Dalai Lama to attend the 80th birthday of South African hero and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu.
South Africa’s diplomacy in Durban, where two weeks of talks failed to finish on time and many delegates had to leave before proceedings concluded, did little to change minds.
Envoys said the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa’s foreign ministry, failed to learn crucial lessons from U.N. negotiations that have been going on for about 20 years on how to push delegates to wind up discussions and start drawing up deals that will be approved.
Many envoys said a deal was only done in Durban despite South Africa and not because of it.
“There was no leadership. No idea of how to run this thing. It was chaos,” said a diplomat from a leading country who asked not to be named.
Another diplomat said: “South Africa went into this with the idea if we negotiate all through the night on the final day we would get a deal.”
“They should have learned from previous meetings to start high-level talks on the most contentious issues as soon as the ministers arrive so that we would not be here two days after this process was supposed to end,” said the diplomat who asked not to be named.
In what may be seen as a vote against the process, Canada on Monday became the first country to announce it would withdraw from the Kyoto protocol on climate change, dealing a symbolic blow to the already troubled global treaty.
While powers such as China and Japan called the move “regrettable”, South African foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said there was no reason for the hosts of the Durban talks to respond because it was a United Nations matter.
By Jon Herskovitz
Source: Reuters Africa newsletter
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