ENVOY ROW BREWS
SA govt mum as Norway cries foul
T HE DEPARTMENT of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) has closed ranks over an incident in which a South African diplomat in Norway, allegedly driving drunk, caused a head-on collision in Oslo.
Dirco spokesman Nelson Kgwete said the Norwegian government had confirmed the accident over the weekend, but the matter was still under investigation by their authorities.
“We are not releasing the person’s name. An accident is an accident and it can happen to anyone. We cannot comment further until investigations are complete,” he said.
Norway’s News in English website has published a full account of the incident: “The drama began around an hour after midnight Saturday, when a police patrol car came up behind a car bearing CD (Corps Diplomatique) licence plates. They reacted to the way the embassy car was being driven.”
The VG newspaper reported that instead of pulling over, the embassy car picked up speed.
“Suddenly, the embassy car accelerated as if it tried to get away (from the police),” Ola Krokan, operations leader for the Oslo police district, told osloby.no.
The police then turned on their car’s blue lights and siren, and the embassy driver responded by swerving into the oncoming lane, whereupon the embassy car collided with a car driven by a young Norwegian paramedic who was responding to a call for help. The paramedic was pinned in her car and had to be freed by firefighters called to the scene before she could be rushed to hospital.
Police told several Norwegian reporters that the driver of the car appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, while the passenger in the embassy car jumped out and ran away instead of offering any assistance at the scene of the collision.
The report said that because embassy personnel in Norway are protected by diplomatic immunity from local laws, regulations and taxes, as they are in most countries, police were unable to file any charges against the driver or embassy officials. Nor could police force the driver to submit to tests for drunk driving.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that personnel from the South African Embassy arrived at the scene to escort the driver either home or back to the embassy.
The embassy’s CD licence plates were also quickly clipped off the car, making it difficult to trace, said the report.
The embassy employee refused to agree to a breathalyser.
Drunk driving is a serious offence in Norway, resulting in immediate revocation of a driving licence, heavy fines and mandatory jail terms, even when no one is injured or killed.
The DA has expressed its dismay over the incident and called for the diplomat’s immediate suspension.
DA spokesman for international relations and co-operation Stevens Mokgalapa said this “gross act of diplomatic recklessness and criminal conduct on the part of South African diplomats must be strongly condemned”.
He said the party would today write to Dirco Minister Nkoana-Mashabane to request that she immediately suspend this diplomat and begin a disciplinary process against him.
“It is reported that Norway is seeking the waiver of diplomatic immunity under the Geneva Convention to try the South African diplomat criminally, and South Africa must equally act against this representative of our country.
“It is also alleged that the diplomat has a previous drunk driving allegation against him, and if ambassador Queen Zondo knew about this history and failed to prevent this latest incident, the ambassador too must be immediately suspended,” Mokgalapa said.
According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, passed in 1961, diplomats are given legal immunity and are considered not susceptible to legal action, lawsuits or prosecution under the host country’s laws, but they can still be expelled by the host country in case of the transgression of laws.