# List of ambassadors of Austria to South Africa

The Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to South Africa is the Republic of Austria's foremost diplomatic representative in South Africa. As head of Austria's diplomatic mission there, the ambassador is the official representative of the president and government of Austria to the Prime Minister and the government of South Africa. The position has the rank and status of an Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and the embassy is located in Cape Town.
The embassy's area of responsibility also includes the Republic of Angola, the Republic of Botswana, the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Republic of Madagascar, the Republic of Mauritius, the Republic of Mozambique, the Republic of Namibia, the Republic of Zimbabwe, and the Kingdom of Eswatini.

## History

The embassy in South Africa opened in 1955. Its jurisdiction includes several countries in Southern Africa for which there is no embassy of its own.
The Consulate General in South Africa was located in Cape Town but was closed in October 2010. The Austrian Embassy in Harare (the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe) was closed on 1 January 2012 for security reasons, and its jurisdiction was divided between the embassies in Pretoria and Nairobi, whereby Pretoria also took over the representation for Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Angola.

## Austrian Ambassadors

| Name | Term Start | Term End | Notes |
| Austria → South Africa ( Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Eswatini) ||||
| Wilhelm Görtz | 1955 | 1959 | |
| Eduard Schiller | 1959 | 1962 | |
| Franz Rader | 1962 | 1964 | Acting Ambassador from 29 December 1962 to 18 March 1964 |
| Adolf Heinrich Hobel | 1964 | 1968 | Previously Ambassador to Bulgaria and Finland; later to Chile |
| Paul Zedtwitz | 1968 | 1972 | Previously Counsellor and Chargé d'Affaires in the United States, Chile, Ethiopia; later in Algeria |
| Ernst Hessenberger | 1972 | 1975 | |
| Arnold Möbius | 1975 | 1979 | |
| Michael Fitz. | 1979 | 1983 | |
| Johann Plattner | 1983 | 1986 | |
| Alexander Christiani | 1986 | 1990 | Previously Head of the department for the Near and Middle East in the Foreign Ministry, member of the delegation to the UN General Assembly, Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands |
| Arnold Möbius | 1990 | 1994 | Second term |
| Franz Palla | 1994 | 1999 | |
| Kurt Spallinger | 1999 | 2003 | |
| Helmut Freudenschuss | 2003 | 2008 | Previously a member of the Permanent Representative to the UN in New York and Alternate Representative in the Security Council, Head of Coordination Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to Lebanon; later Head of Sub-Saharan Africa Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Advisor to the President. |
| Otto Ditz | 2008 | 2012 | Since January 2012: Austria → Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique |
| Otto Ditz | 2008 | 2012 | Previously Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and Canada and Jamaica. |
| Brigitte Öppinger-Walchshofer | 2013 | 2017 | Previously Ambassador to Ethiopia and Deputy Representative to the African Union, and Head of Austrian Development Cooperation. |
| Johann Brieger | 2018 | 2022 | Previously Ambassador to Kosovo, Deputy Head of the Service Section (at Ambassadorial level), Permanent Representative to the IACA and member of the supervisory board of the ADA |
| Romana Königsbrun | 2022 | Present | Accredited to Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe. |