JOHANNESBURG—The government of South Africa has thrown down the gauntlet to its U.S. counterpart, saying that U.S. repercussions against it for supporting totalitarian regimes could “amount to self-sabotage.”
In an opinion article published in the UK’s Financial Times newspaper recently, South Africa’s minister of international relations, Naledi Pandor, wrote: “Seeking to bring South Africa to its knees almost amounts to self-sabotage for the United States.
“We were a key driver in the formulation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement [AfCFTA] and now of its implementation.
Ms. Pandor also noted that the United States imports nearly 100 percent of the chromium that it needs from South Africa, as well as more than a quarter of the manganese, titanium, and platinum that it uses.
The Russian government-funded African media website Sputnik Africa immediately seized upon Ms. Pandor’s comments, presenting them as evidence of Pretoria’s rapidly deteriorating relations with Washington.
Greg Mills, a political expert at the Brenthurst Foundation think tank in Johannesburg, described the minister’s article as “arrogant” and “naive” and said it amounted to “antagonizing” Washington.
“It’s not a very clever move,” he told The Epoch Times. “The ANC [African National Congress] seems to be making the same mistake as the apartheid government did, and that’s to assume that South Africa is bigger and richer and more strategically important than it actually is.”
Mr. Mills said Ms. Pandor’s notion that South Africa is the “gateway to the continent” is simply wrong.
“Nigeria in the west, Kenya in the east, and Egypt in the north might lay more credible claims to this status, as their economic growth rates far outstrip that of South Africa’s,” he said.
“Ms. Pandor’s comment is also arrogant because it presumes that the United States requires the connivance of a self-appointed gatekeeper to access what is a free trade area.
“I’ll also point out that this free trade area will only reach fruition four decades from now.”
It imposed a series of hard-hitting economic sanctions on apartheid South Africa, something that historians say contributed to the country’s isolation and helped to bring about the democratic change that eventually resulted in the ANC’s rise to power in 1994.
Mr. Mills said the Reagan administration had taken harsh steps against South Africa’s National Party government, even though it was a strong ally for Washington against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
“Unlike the apartheid regime, the ANC is hostile toward Western democracies and says it’s proud to call Russia and China its best friends,” he said.
“This is not going down well on Capitol Hill. Yet the ANC government, just like the former apartheid state, seems to believe it’s untouchable.”
Another leading South African foreign affairs analyst, Sanusha Naidu, told The Epoch Times: “The Soviets backed the ANC, and the Americans haven’t forgotten this.
“To this day, the ANC associates closely with Russia and China, and a prevailing attitude in Washington is that if the ANC’s not careful, the United States will help to bring about its downfall, as well.”
In late January, in the wake of his government’s case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice, President Cyril Ramaphosa told an ANC meeting that some of Israel’s allies wanted “regime change” in South Africa.
“[The ANC is] wasting its time on conspiracy theories and cozying up to [President] Joe Biden and [U.S. Secretary of State] Antony Blinken when the real action’s on Capitol Hill,” Mr. Mills said.
Indeed, it is events unfolding on the Hill that seem to have raised Ms. Pandor’s ire.
In the Financial Times, she wrote with disdain about a bill put forward by U.S. Congress members in February 2023.
The lawmakers claim that certain actions by Mr. Ramaphosa’s government pose direct and indirect dangers to U.S. citizens and interests.
These include Pretoria’s increased military cooperation with Russia and China and its alignment with Moscow and Beijing in key votes at the United Nations.
The resolution notes that the ANC and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “engage in consistent interparty cooperation in spite of South Africa’s Constitution being opposed to the CCP’s routine suppression of free expression and individual rights.”
It states that the CCP has established at least three “overseas police stations” in South Africa to “track and harass PRC [People’s Republic of China] dissidents.”
The South African government denies that they exist, and Beijing isn’t commenting.
The bill highlights that South Africa is China’s largest trading partner in Africa, with total trade valued at $54 billion in 2021, and has accepted $5 billion in “power and transportation sector” loans from Beijing since 2015.
Despite that, it states, South Africa’s transport and electricity sectors are shambolic, with rail and port services barely functioning and the ANC proving itself incapable of providing electricity to citizens because of its “chronic mismanagement” of state-owned power company Eskom, which is wracked with corruption.
It states that increased Chinese presence in South Africa’s technology sector “has raised concerns that the ANC may be trying to copy the PRC’s model of digitally aided authoritarian governance underpinned by cyber controls, social monitoring, and surveillance.”
The ANC called the claim “ridiculous.”
According to the Congress members, U.S. policy toward South Africa “appears to have failed in building a strong, reliable bilateral partner”; they say it’s not in the U.S. national security interest to cooperate with a country that’s sharing “strategic information” with the PRC and Russia.
Another bipartisan bill, which aims to extend the AGOA until 2041, is co-sponsored by Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), a strong critic of the South African government.
The senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, he has repeatedly rebuked the Biden administration for keeping South Africa in the AGOA despite its friendly relations with Moscow, Tehran, and the Hamas terrorist group.
Mr. Risch called on Congress to take “course-corrective action.”
Arno van Niekerk, an economist at the University of the Free State, has done extensive research into South Africa’s trade relationship with the United States.
He told The Epoch Times: “America’s the second-biggest destination for South African exports, after China.
“South Africa also imports a lot from America; it only imports more products from China and Germany.
“In 2022, total trade volume between South Africa and the United States was $24.5 billion, with a trade imbalance of $9.3 billion in South Africa’s favor.
“So South Africa has to manage its relations with Washington very carefully. I am sure many people would consider Minister Pandor’s latest comments to be careless.”
Mr. van Niekerk pointed out that the United States is currently South Africa’s fifth-largest source of foreign direct investment, valued at $10 billion.
At least 600 U.S. businesses operate in South Africa, employing about 200,000 people, according to House Resolution 145.
Mr. Mills said the ANC government’s “friendship with authoritarians and terrorists,” including its alliances with Hamas, Iran, China, Russia, and Zimbabwe, are “cause for great concern” in Washington.
“Forget the diplomatic speak and smiles from Blinken and [Vice-President Kamala] Harris, even the Biden administration is dissatisfied with the South African government’s foreign policy positions,” he said.
“We can imagine what will happen if Donald Trump regains the White House.”
Mr. Mills said Pretoria has been “guilty of diplomatic bungling of the highest order” in recent times.
“Pandor phoned Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh just 10 days after the organization’s horrific attack on Israel [on Oct. 7, 2023],” he said.
However, the damage was done, according to Mr. Mills.
“How is it possible that the presidency was unaware of Pandor’s call with Hamas or of the symbolic significance of a fawning visit to Iran?” he asked.
Pretoria’s official statement said Ms. Pandor made the visit to “convey a message” from Mr. Ramaphosa and to engage “on issues of mutual bilateral interest.”
“Countries like South Africa have been consistent in their support to Palestine and have never deviated from the belief President Mandela held, that until the people of Palestine are free, South Africa will not be fully free,” the statement reads.
South Africa subsequently cut all diplomatic relations with Israel, pulling its officials out of Tel Aviv and posting them to Ramallah on the West Bank.
Mr. Mills said that while the ANC government continues to insist on human rights for Palestinians, it also continues to insist on its right to maintain friendships with some of the most brutal regimes in the world.
“This suggests it wants to pivot away from the world of democratic nations toward that dominated by authoritarians, but it wants its Western partners to ignore this,” he said.
“And some in the United States are tired of ignoring this.
“The lobby in Washington that wants an end to this charade is getting stronger.
“Powerful Americans are starting to say, ‘Why must we do business with people who seem to hate us and what we stand for and love our enemies?’”
Mr. Mills predicted that South Africa’s biggest “rookie mistake” would be to believe that good relations with the White House give it license to “insult” U.S. sentiment, values, and interests without disturbing its economic relations.
“We’re talking about Washington here, not Kampala. Policy is not just up to Joe Biden and his diplomatic representatives,” he said.
Mr. Mills said the ANC would eventually realize that there is a price to pay for “its brand of sanctimonious ideological bunkum.”
“Hostility to Western industrial democracies comes at a cost which the ANC and South Africans cannot afford,” he said.
Ms. Pandor’s spokesperson, Clayson Monyela, told The Epoch Times that the minister “stands by her comments” made to the Financial Times and that her statements “aren’t designed to insult anyone, but to reflect the essence of her department’s policies and principles.”
