By Nick Mann | 1 May 2013

The South African government has criticised the UK’s announcement that it will be ending its direct aid to the country in 2015, claiming it was not fully consulted on the move.

UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening revealed yesterday that the aid, which is currently worth £19m a year, would stop and the UK’s relationship with South Africa would instead focus on trade.

However, in a statement, South Africa’s Department for International Relations and Co-operation noted the UK announcement with ‘regret’. ‘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,’ it claimed.

Commenting on discussions leading up the decision, the department added: ‘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, and the modalities of the announcement agreed on.’

‘We have a SA/UK Bilateral Forum which is scheduled for some time this year and the review of the SA/UK strategy which includes the overseas development assistance would take place there, and decisions about how to move forward were expected to be discussed in that forum.’

The statement warned that the announcement would affect UK-South African relations but said it hoped the Bilateral Forum later this year would ‘clear up’ the issue.

Ivan Lewis, shadow international development secretary for the UK’s opposition Labour Party, said the South African government had ‘completely contradicted’ Greening’s claim that her decision was made with the agreement of her South African counterparts.

‘This looks like a serious breach of trust with one of our most important strategic partners. Justine Greening must explain why she is saying one thing about her conduct while the South African government is saying another,’ he said.

‘Behaving in what looks like a high-handed and patronising fashion towards South Africa is no way to treat one of the world’s key emerging nations and is not in Britain’s national interest.’

However, in a statement, the UK department aid the decision had followed ‘months of discussions’ with its South African counterparts, with ministers and officials having met on several occasions.