Following the recall of South Africa’s ambassador to Israel, international relations minister Lindiwe Sisulu has announced that he will not be replaced and that her country’s formerly full-service embassy in Tel Aviv has been downgraded to a liaison office.

In a speech published on the Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s website, Sisulu said that the decision to not replace ambassador Sisa Ngombane was part of the downgrade process.

In 2018, the South African government took a decision to downgrade its Israeli embassy to a liaison office, in line with a resolution taken by the ruling party, the African National Congress, during its 2017 elective conference.

Ngombane was withdrawn from Tel Aviv in May 2018, following the killings of a number of protesting Palestinians by the Israeli army in Gaza.

In her address to the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) on Wednesday, Sisulu explained the consequences of downgrading the South African embassy in Israel.

“We are in the process of following the downgrade resolution of the ruling party, and stage one has been completed,” Sisulu’s speech read.

“Our Ambassador is back in South Africa and we will not be replacing him.”

“Our liaison office in Tel Aviv will have no political mandate, no trade mandate and no development cooperation mandate. It will not be responsible for trade and commercial activities. The focus of the liaison office would be on consular [matters] and the facilitation of people-to-people relations.”

Sisulu said that the position on the matter of Israel had been very clearly expressed by the ruling party and also through public statements after the protesters in Gaza were shot last year.

“We immediately recalled our ambassador for consultation and demarched the Israeli ambassador to South Africa.”

Sisulu also reiterated her country’s “grave concern about the continued disregard for the prevailing and long-standing Middle East Peace Process and attempts to prejudge final status issues particularly with regard to the borders, and the status of Jerusalem through unilateral actions.”