Dilution of SA’s leadership role

(SADF), the South African Police (SAP) and their intelligence networks.
In addition, Africa criticised South Africa’s close links with the state of Israel publicly. In fact, after World War 2 and the Nazi regime of Germany, both countries stood jointly accused as enemies of humanity. The realistic observation was then that South Africa was in actual fact not part of the African continent.
Meanwhile, the cold-war era played itself off on the stage of sub-Saharan Africa. The continent paid a heavy price with criminal operations such as Angola’s UNITA, Mozambique’s FRELIMO, Inkatha, the “vigilantes” and so-called “xenophobic” acts of crime in South Africa and many other such highly trained and armed groups causing much bloodletting throughout southern Africa.
However, when the ultra-right-wing, arch-racist president of exclusive white-nationalist, colonial-apartheid South Africa, Frederick Willem de Klerk, set the ANC leadership free, unbanned all opposing, black-nationalist African political movements in February 1990, Africa welcomed that strategic move cautiously.
Hope for a real turnaround of personal and economic freedoms under South Africa’s new flag of democracy came up. The international Western community hailed both, Mandela and De Klerk, as peacemakers and democrats and awarded them jointly with the Nobel Peace Prize.
Then, South Africa’s exclusive, oligopolistic and cartelised, multi-national business, financial, mining, manufacturing, telecoms and retail industries celebrated their new, “democratic” success, polishing the doorknobs of the office of the new president of a new South Africa, Nelson Mandela.
Mandela was bestowed with another “prestigious” award – the “Cecil-John Rhodes Foundation”, which was re-named the “Nelson Mandela-Cecil John Rhodes Foundation”. The former “terrorist” and fighter for African liberties, Mandela, joined the ever exclusive, British arch-conqueror, Rhodes. It was a sign of the ultimate “reconciliation”. Pan-Africanists however, view that arrangement as the “final conquest” of South Africa.
The paymasters of the discriminating and exclusive colonial-apartheid system and owners of the economy, also owners of the media and the advertising industries, became new “Comrades-in-Arms” overnight, condemning the colonial-apartheid history, crying out loud, how racial discrimination and a pure-white military machine had also made them suffer. The “Damascus Experience” became heart wrenching.
Meanwhile, their status quo, which they had established back in 1948 when the exclusive, colonial-apartheid Nationalist Party-regime was elected into power, remains firmly in tact in 2012 and will most likely do so for many decades to come.
Pretoria’s newly elected administrators under Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki travelled Africa. They took their new friends from the economy and multi-nationals along with them. Mandela and Mbeki introduced those vicious plunder-barons as their “trusted friends”, who had only Africa’s best interests in mind, as expressed in their latest approach of “investing in Africa”.
Africa looked with envious hope at the new “super power” on the African continent. It welcomed the “change of heart” and the “Africanisation” of those new investments with open arms. It was received in good faith. South Africa and the ruling ANC under Nelson Mandela and his men and women were widely respected and even praised as Africa’s rescuers. “Look South!” became Africa’s new motto.
However, like the proverbial “Chinese year-end fireworks display”, this mirage faded suddenly. After too many business deals gone sour, empty promises, signed-up investments not forthcoming, continuous attempts to manipulate political power in sovereign African states in order to gain powerful influence, lower salaries for staff in those new African countries, no real, visible return of capital made from large profits and endless “business contracts”, many fronting for Australian, British- Canadian, Israeli, US and EU interests, have all strained Africa’s relationship with the “power house”, South Africa.
Influential African business people across the continent observed, “that new interest in Africa is actually known as furthering a vested, neo-colonial drive to conquer the African continent similar to Cecil J Rhodes’ ambitious plan for Africa.”
It is said, “South Africa is merely fronting for a global business, mining, telecoms and banking elite. It is described as a proxy.” And, “South Africa’s ‘Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE)’ is just a front to create a white-owned black South African and African middle class.” Others go even further, “South Africa poses a security risk, almost as the former colonial-apartheid system did.”
Is South Africa a “security risk” for Africa? There are instances where South Africa’s role is perceived as unsupportive, if not siding with interests of the international West. Recent UN Security Council decisions seem to bring it up, as for example when South Africa supported the decisions of the US, UK, France and other permanent members to (a) sanction NATO to bomb Libya and (b) to topple Syria’s head-of-state, despite Russia’s and China’s clear veto.
The above-mentioned perception calls for examples to shine a light on those fears. In the case of Liberia’s former president, Charles Taylor, Nigeria’s former president Olusegon Obasanjo and South Africa’s re-called, former president Thabo Mbeki had negotiated as members of the AU and thus, for and on behalf of the African Union, to accept Taylor’s peace offer.
Taylor would seek asylum in Nigeria, where he most likely, would have lived for the rest of his life. In return, Liberia’s army and Taylor’s followers would end the civil war. The war ended. Obasanjo and Mbeki signed the aforementioned peace-agreement together with Taylor. The AU accepted this agreement. It brought peace not only to Liberia, but also to the region. It was an African success.
However, international Western interests overruled this African arrangement. Nigeria’s head-of-state was invited to the White House in Washington DC. Obasanjo looked forward to meeting his American counterpart, George W. Bush.
As Nigeria’s presidential plane was about to take off, Obasanjo received a telephone call from the White House. The president’s office recommended that the Nigerian authorities would release Liberia’s former president, Charles Taylor, from his asylum and hand him over to Sierra Leone, from where Taylor would be transferred to the European International Crimes Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Netherlands.
To avoid embarrassment not to be received in America, Obasanjo agreed to the US’ request. He then flew on to Washington. Taylor was handed over to the Sierra Leonean authorities. The original African agreement became redundant.
It was not worth the paper it was written on. Neither were the signatures of the heads-of-state of the “power houses”, Nigeria and South Africa and neither was the African Union’s acceptance of that all-African deal. All of them had to bow to Washington, as their new colonial dictator.
The ever-present French Connection showed its hand. France’s economy depends heavily on its “former” colonies in Franco-phone Africa. France declared that Cote d’Ivoire is not “democratic” enough for the interests of Paris. Cote d’Ivoire was told to rid itself of its president, Laurent Gbagbo, an academic and historian, who, together with his circle of friends and advisers, showed to have serious problems with French interests in that sovereign West African state.
However, the elections were declared “rigged” and therefore, were unacceptable to the international community. Paris brought in their man from the north of Cote d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara. The US supported France’s preference over Gbagbo. South Africa’s re-called, former president Thabo Mbeki, tried to broker peace and a smooth election process, but failed.
The UN representation was accused of meddling in the internal, sovereign affairs of Cote d’Ivoire. Washington’s secretary of state, Hilary Clinton made it clear whom she supported – the Muslim, former Ivorian prime minister, Ouattara, who was appointed by former president and friend of colonial-apartheid president PW Botha, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, former deputy head of the IMF and economist.