By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Caption: A view shows the Taipei Liaison Office in South Africa which is Taiwan’s representative office in South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria, South Africa, October 22, 2024. Image: Reuters.
The International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) minister Ronald Lamola confirmed the issue of the relocation of the Taiwan Liaison Office has been finalised.
On 21 July 2025, the international relations department enacted the name change and derecognition of Taiwan’s Pretoria office through a notice placed in the Government Gazette, which was backdated to 31 March 2025.
Until now, South Africa has walked the careful line most nations do, as neither China nor Taiwan will establish diplomatic relations with countries that recognise the other as the official Chinese representative.
In line with a 1971 UN resolution, most countries recognise the People’s Republic of China as the official representative, while maintaining relations with Taiwan.
This was the common practice worldwide, Lamola repeated during a media briefing on Wednesday.
“The issue of the relocation of the Taiwan Liaison Office, from our side, we consider it done because we have gazetted its relocation to the city of Johannesburg as a commercial liaison office.
“And we have stated the reasons because our relations with Taiwan are at the commercial level in trade.
“And this is not just a South African phenomenon. In many capitals across the globe, Taiwan is in the commercial cities, not some South African exceptionalism.
The SA government has been putting pressure on Taiwan to move from Pretoria to Johannesburg since late 2023.It claimed that Taiwan having an office in the capital violates the One China policy, which SA adopted in 1998 when it switched recognition from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China.
However, Taiwan has pointed out that almost all countries in the world, including Russia, India and Brazil, allow Taiwan to maintain representative offices in their capital cities, although these offices go under the name of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, rather than under the name Taiwan.
SA’s efforts to pressure Taiwan to move from Pretoria to Johannesburg have been cited by the Trump administration and US congressional representatives as one of the reasons they are seeking to sanction South Africa.