Moffat Mungazi
Gibson Nyikadzino
Zimpapers Politics Hub
TWO diplomatic occurrences panned out this week, which earned African countries global attention.
On one hand, Rwanda expelled Belgian diplomats and severed relations with the European country, sending a strong resolve that the Rwandese will determine their destiny and sovereign right to existence. Belgians responded in like currency.
A reactionary move to save face.
On the other hand, South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States Ebrahim Rasool was declared persona non grata for being a “racist-baiting” individual who allegedly made remarks that were translated to have been attacking the president of the host country following a Zoom meeting discussion.
Ambassador Rasool was given 72 hours to leave the US, and South African authorities have reportedly said they will get a replacement and cannot defend Rasool as he scored an “own goal”.
South Africa, a US ally, is navigating a complex diplomatic terrain never witnessed since the post-apartheid era.
It was the late Henry Kissinger who remarked: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
“By qualitatively looking at what the US has done to its friends or allies, it would be easy to see that it is a “fatal friendship or alliance”.
Today, the European Union (EU), Ukraine, Canada and Germany among the many, are paying a price for being allies of the US.
South Africa is in the same quagmire, as it appears that it cannot be forgiven by the US.
South Africa is a country that is hard-pressed from all angles.
From allegations of committing a genocide against Afrikaners or its white population; expropriating land without compensation; betraying the mutual trust with the US; allegations of funding Iran; advocating for de-dollarisation within the BRICS alliance; being pro-Russia and pro-China; and taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), these have created a huge challenge for Pretoria.
Before the end of the Joe Biden’s administration, signals were becoming instructive that the Western establishment was no longer happy with South Africa.
The Donald Trump administration, since coming in on January 20 inherited a policy that was fertile to strain relations between the two countries.
In March 2022, following Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine in late February, South Africa abstained from voting in the United Nations (UN) on a resolution condemning Russia “for invading Ukraine”.
However, 28 African states voted in favour of that resolution.
A significant factor for the abstention can be explained through the enduring relationship between the African National Congress (ANC) and Russia, regarded as one of the “progressive forces” that aided its fight against apartheid many years ago.
As a result, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers called for former president Joe Biden to punish South Africa for not condemning Russia and for having military and close diplomatic ties with Moscow.
Therefore, to comprehend current SA-US relations, it should be recognised that following 1994, the US and SA established multiple comprehensive strategic agreements including security, energy, health, and military assistance among others.
Additionally, the US provides foreign aid and development support to South Africa amounting to approximately US$500 million per year, which constitutes more than 50 percent of South Africa’s total annual aid inflows.
The US exerts significant influence, governing practically all facets of world politics. It is South Africa’s second-largest trading partner.
In 2022, exports to the US constituted seven percent of the total, amounting to over US$11 billion, while exports to China for example, reached almost US$23 billion.
What is also behind the unforgiving attitude by the US towards South Africa is the latter’s position on Gaza; the actions that South Africa have taken with regard to genocide and its friendship with China.
South Africa is a prominent member of the BRICS Alliance and has taken, in certain ways, quite an anti-American posture in a number of our foreign policy orientations including having a position on de-dollarisation.
It has found itself in Trump’s crosshairs when it comes to these issues.
The US is therefore reacting against what it sees as a decidedly anti-US foreign policy orientation.
What is also important to understand is that in last year’s elections, South Africa’s ANC, the governing party, lost its majority.
It is now in an alliance with a number of parties, some of which are much more sympathetic to the US, hence in a certain way, it is being punished for a government that is now pursuing a foreign policy priority that is either pro-Chinese or pro-Russian.
This evidence to this that in December 2022 the US was dissatisfied with South Africa’s decision to allow the US-sanctioned Russian cargo ship Lady R to dock in the Simonstown naval base.
Also, the US was not happy with China establishing a private test flying academy in South Africa, which the US says recruits ex-American and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) pilots to train Chinese pilots.
China and Russia are the two strongest and biggest members of the BRICS. Relations between the US and Russia, China, and Iran—one of the newest members of the BRICS—have been tense, and the US views South Africa’s improved ties with these nations as anti-Western.
In view of this, South Africa’s participation in organisations like the BRICS and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may be in jeopardy as President Cyril Ramaphosa faces mounting pressure from Washington to cut off relations with China, Russia, and Iran.
The US sees South Africa as the weakest link in the BRICS alliance!
Another dimension to this hegemonic posture by the US towards South Africa is that President Ramaphosa has led South Africa to an ideological path that not most of African ever thought of.
He endured years of being negatively as an anti-black child President.
However, he has been silently ‘radical’ in preserving the humanitarian and humane being of people internally and externally by hoisting Palestinian right to sovereign rule.
Former Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) parliamentarian Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi rejected references that had been made that President Ramaphosa was “selling out blacks”.
“Because nothing was seen by us that one-day President Ramaphosa would speak radically like Robert Mugabe regarding South Africa’s sovereignty, does not mean he was a sellout,” Dr Ndlozi said.
To the US, South Africa was a useful geo-political proxy instrument or foreign policy tool to exercise its hegemony, including in shaping the continent’s institutional architecture, which included the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the African Union (AU), and the Pan-African Parliament (PAP).
This also includes having South Africa being useful in leading regional cooperation efforts that particularly had a bearing in transforming the SADC.
South Africa needs the support of Africa, its neighbours and regional peers in facing the monstrous advances and boardroom strategies being played out by the US.
It is neither safe nor progressive to remain silent when the first country in the world, after all from Africa, flagged genocidal wrongs that were perpetrated against Palestinians.
Moral solidarity is key for South Africa.
Online Reporter