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About us

Whether you are Danish or South African we hope this website can provide you with the information you need about business and living in Denmark and South Africa.

About us

We are 32 employees at the Embassy in Pretoria. Apart from South Africa, we also cover Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, eSwatini, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) organisation and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

The Embassy is a versatile organization, which has a wide portfolio of responsibilities. Core responsibilities are diplomatic and political relations, consular services, economic and trade relations and strategic sector cooperation. You can get an impression of our work tasks from the text below and click on the various sub-sections on the website, if you want to know more.

 

Diplomatic and political relations 

The Embassy’s political team drives the work to develop a more strategic partnership with South Africa and strengthen the diplomatic and political relations between Denmark and South Africa as well as the Embassy’s side-accredited countries.

Through projects, events and dialogue the Embassy work to support South Africa in priority areas of human rights, democratic governance, gender equality, green transition, youth participation and peace and security.

 

Consular Services

The Embassy’s Consular Service assists Danish citizens visiting or living in South Africa or side-accredited countries. This includes the issuing of passports and assistance with consular issues. The Consular team also provides services to non-Danish nationals within the framework, rules and procedures outlined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This includes the printing of visas and residence permits.

Receipt of visa applications is outsourced to VFS Global located in Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. Therefore, all visa applications must be handed in to VFS at VFS Global - Denmark. Since July 2020, the colleagues at the visa hub in Dubai are processing all visa applications.

 

Trade Council Services

The Trade Team's objective is to promote Danish trade in South Africa as well as attracting South African investments to Denmark. Via meetings, analyses, reports, partner searches, personal consultation and much more, Danish companies are assisted in entering the South African market or expanding their existing commercial activities. The first contact is always free of charge.

At the Embassy we assist large corporations as well as small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Some we assist with small, ones off assignments and others we assist within framework agreements for longer periods of time.

Our trade advisors have in-depth knowledge of several sectors and can also assist with Global Public Affairs through our extensive political and commercial network.

 

Strategic Sector Cooperation

Since 2013, Denmark and South Africa has been working closely under a number of strategic sector cooperation programmes aiming to share knowledge and best practices within a key sectors.

The longest running cooperation has been in the energy sector. Currently the programme is in its third phase, which is based on a cooperation between the Danish Energy Agency and the South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, the IPP Office and ESKOM. The programme is a continuation of long-term Danish support to the introduction of renewable energy in South African energy mix, and is a prime example of “from Aid to Trade” efforts, which simultaneously supports South African priorities as well.

Since 2015, Denmark and South Africa have also enjoyed a strategic sector cooperation within water. A phase three of the strategic water sector cooperation programme was approved in March 2023 based on a MoU between the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Water and Sanitation in South Africa. The phase three of the programme will run until 2026. The aim of the programme is to improve the framework conditions and the investor attractiveness of the South African water sector. The programme has five components: Ground Water, Water Efficiency in Industries, Urban Water Services, Research & Innovation and a Project Support Facility.

The strategic sector cooperation programme between the City of Aarhus and the City of Tshwane (Pretoria) was established with a MoU in 2017 and a 3-year project was signed in 2018. A new 3-year phase was approved in March 2023. The new phase will have a dedicated focus on water management, including wastewater optimization, non-revenue water; own resource optimization and the development of a water security strategies.

Recently, the Danish Veterinary and Food Authority has together with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and the Embassy initiated the inception phase of the South African Danish Strategic Sector Cooperation on Food and Agriculture. It is expected that the formulation and design of the project will be finalized by quarter 1 2024 and will run in 3 phases of 3 years each.

Finally, the strategic sector cooperation was in 2022 expanded with an additional instrument: The Investment Advisor. The advisor works with the investment climate in the sectors where we have bilateral programmes and further work to identify and realize investment opportunities.

 

Regional Activities

On regional activities, Denmark is engaging and working with regional partners (both government and civil society) on joint priorities and projects in the region, and thereby further building on the good relationship that Denmark and countries in the Southern African region have enjoyed for many years.