Lithuania honours South Africans for distinguished service

Johannesburg attorneys Raymond Joffe and Ivor Feinberg were on 11 March given one of the highest honours from the president of Lithuania for nationals outside of the country.

These two acting honorary consuls of the Republic of Lithuania received the Cross of Officer of the Order of Merits to Lithuania from the Lithuanian ambassador to South Africa, Dainius Junevičius, at the Lithuanian Independence Day commemoration on Friday.

The decorations were awarded to Joffe and Feinberg for their distinguished service in promoting the name of Lithuania as well as assisting Lithuanian citizens and the Lithuanian diplomatic service, by the decree of President Gitanas Nausėda.

“I express my sincere gratitude for your long-term work and effort in strengthening Lithuanian-South African relations, for helping Lithuanian citizens, mobilising the community, developing bilateral business relations and representing our country’s interests in the Republic of South Africa,” said Junevičius.

“As a result of your effort and outstanding work, today we can be proud of the friendly, strong relations between Lithuania and South Africa.”

A Lithuanian and South Africa citizen, Joffe was appointed honorary consul of the Republic of Lithuania on 30 May 1994. He is the first and longest-serving honorary consul of the restored Republic of Lithuania in South Africa.

As early as November 1988, Joffe addressed the Lithuanian consul-general in New York, Anicetas Simutis, offering his assistance to strengthen the relations of Lithuanian emigrants living in South Africa with Lithuania. Having taken up the position of honorary consul at a time when Lithuania didn’t yet have its own diplomatic mission in South Africa, Joffe was the most important representative of Lithuania in this country until 1998. After the accreditation of the Lithuanian Embassy in Israel to the Republic of South Africa in 1998, he continued to take care of Lithuanian citizens in distress and assisted the Lithuanian Embassy in Israel in carrying out diplomatic and consular functions in the South Africa.

A Lithuanian and South Africa citizen, Feinberg was appointed honorary consul of the Republic of Lithuania on 22 July 2005. During 16 years of his service for Lithuania, Feinberg helped Lithuanian citizens, their businesses and the Lithuanian diplomatic service, as well as mobilising the South African Jewish community of Lithuanian descent.

Both honorary consuls made a significant contribution to the establishment of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in South Africa in 2015, and to provided assistance in the first years of the embassy’s activities in South Africa.