We love the South African Diplomatic Service

Our experience of diplomatic missions abroad has been mixed. We have great friends who are diplomats but sometimes it seems they are the exception rather than the rule. For many consulates, the concept of actually serving or helping their fellow citizens is utterly alien. The Finnish Consulate in Addis Ababa opened for something like 2 hours a day, four days a week. How do I know this? It's a long story . . .

So far, however, our experience with the South African embassies and consulates has been great. In Kazakhstan, the SA embassy had just opened and I think I was their first customer. When I told them that I needed a work permit they were very excited as it was the first such permit they had ever done. I got gold-plated service.

In Geneva we needed to have some documents witnessed and attested for the sale of our house in South Africa. We had tried to do this at the British Embassy in Belgrade, but they wanted £65 per signature, and we had 10 pages to sign with several signatures per page. Much as I would love to help HM Treasury and reduce the national debt, the idea of paying over £1000 for notary services was too much. By contrast in Geneva, the SA consulate stamped, witnessed and initialled every document at no charge, and all within 5 minutes. The staff were extremely friendly even when I had to come back to get extra signatures. We love young democracies.