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United States Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks.
Sharon Seretlo, Gallo Images
- The US ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks, reportedly asked the US State Department to spend millions to renovate a house in which she never lived.
- One report says it ordered renovations and furniture worth around R15 million.
- The house is in Cape Town.
Former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to South Africa pressured the State Department to spend around $ 1 million (roughly R15 million) to renovate a second residence for her that she never occupied, according to a report.
Lana Marks, an expensive handbag designer who was an early member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, wanted an official second residence in Cape Town, the seaside city that is often considered more desirable than the capital, Pretoria, The report said: it cited unidentified diplomats.
The Diplomatic Journal of the Washington International Diplomatic Academy, which provides professional training, said Marks lobbied another Trump appointee to approve renovations, new furniture and other expenses worth about $ 1 million.
“It was an extremely poor use of taxpayer money and a very poignant example of excess,” said an anonymous diplomat.
To give way to the ambassador’s wishes, the US consul general and his family were asked to leave the residence early, he said.
Marks, who was barely at work for a year, never occupied the Cape Town home.
Sick
He became ill with Covid-19 late last year and, in an unusual move, he was allowed to stay at the Pretoria residence while he recovers despite the fact that his term ended with the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
The State Department declined to comment immediately on the report and Marks could not be reached.
South Africa’s parliament meets in Cape Town and foreign ambassadors have historically spent time there.
But in a 2011 report, the State Department Inspector General found that the ambassador’s residence was “underused and expensive to maintain” and became the consul general’s home.
In a November statement, the US embassy said the residence, known as Kearsney House, “would be used again as the mission’s head of residence” and highlighted its role in the story, including discussions of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela there with the United States. officials in 1993.
