Procedure for concluding international agreements

The procedure for concluding international agreements is set out in Chapter 5 of the 2006 Manual on Executive Acts of the Office of the President of South Africa.

The procedure is as follows:

• Obtain a legal opinion from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development that will deal with the agreement’s consistency with domestic law.
• Contact the relevant desk at DIRCO to provide input on the agreement from a political point of view.
• The desk at DIRCO will request a legal opinion from the State Law Advisers (IL) that will deal with the agreement’s consistency with international law.
• The desk at DIRCO will provide feedback to the line-function department after which the line-function department will prepare a final text of the agreement, explanatory memorandum and a draft President’s Minute.
• The line-function department must forward the following documentation (in hard copy) to the Office of the Chief State Law Adviser (IL) for certification:
  • draft text of President’s Minute on prescribed format
  • explanatory memorandum of agreement
  • final text of the agreement
  • copy of the legal advice of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
  • copy of the legal advice of the Office of the Chief State Law Adviser (IL) in DIRCO
  • certificate of authenticity issued by the Minister of the responsible government department in case of multilateral agreements.

All documents must be in twofold and placed in a Z137 folder

• After certification, the line-function department takes the following documentation to the Minister to counter sign the President’s Minute, and thereafter, to The Presidency to obtain the necessary approval to sign the agreement:
  • text of President’s Minute
  • explanatory memorandum of agreement
  • certified text of the agreement
  • copy of the legal advice of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
  • copy of the legal advice of the Office of the Chief State Law Adviser (IL) in DIRCO
  • certificate of authenticity issued by the Minister of the responsible government department in case of multilateral agreements
• After the President has signed the Minute, the Treaty Section may be contacted for the binding thereof.
• After signature, the agreement must be deposited with the official custodian, which is the South African Treaty Section, located in the Office of the Chief State Law Adviser (IL) in DIRCO.
• All agreements have to be tabled in Parliament.