South Africa House quietly closes for £3m renovation

Following months of staff complaints about infrastructure failure, including broken heating and plumbing issues, the department of international relations and co-operation has shut the doors of South Africa House, which houses the High Commission in London, without informing South Africans. The closure is to start a major £3m renovation project following years of infrastructure problems.

Attempts to get comment from ambassador Kingsley Mamabolo, whose term is reported to have been extended so he can act as caretaker during the renovations, have not been successful.

We went to see what was happening on Trafalgar Square and found that renovations had begun on the outside. There was a note pinned to an entrance of the embassy announcing the closure, and directing “all consular and any other business” to 15 Whitehall, South Africa’s home affairs/consular building.

We spoke to a vendor who has worked in the area for years, who pointed out how the South African embassy stands out sharply against the other embassy buildings nearby; its neglect all the more visible amid their pristine façades.

When approached for comment, Ryan Smith, the DA spokesperson for international relations and co-operation, who has reported similar neglect at the South African embassy in The Hague, said he had not been informed about the renovations or that the doors had been closed.

“I am shocked, but not surprised,” he said. “It’s such an embarrassment really for our foreign service that we can’t even maintain the buildings that our diplomatic staffers have to operate in, let alone the appointments themselves.”

‘Shameful’

Lord Peter Hain has called the neglect of South Africa House “frankly disturbing and shameful”. But he says the ambassador should not be blamed, noting that Mamabolo has done his best to manage the situation and that responsibility lies with Pretoria.

But there are many open questions around the closure of the embassy: why was it kept quiet and when will it reopen?

Could the concert to honour Nelson Mandela on Trafalgar Square on July 18 have been the catalyst that finally pushed the Ramaphosa government into action?

Perhaps the prospect of dignitaries and South Africans in London arriving for a celebration may well have forced Pretoria to move.

This story was first published on The Bigger Picture Substack.

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