SHORT-SIGHTED SOUTH AFRICA

Looking East instead of West, South Africa’s ruling ANC fails to see ills closer to home

By Kenneth Mokgatlhe

South Africa’s late unsung philosopher hero, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe said during the launch of his Pan Africanist Congress party in 1959:

 “I wish to make it clear again that we are anti-nobody. We are pro-Africa. We breathe, we dream, we live Africa because Africa and humanity are inseparable.”

Sobukwe was a political strategist who was cognisant of the balance of power. While it is prevalent that he was inspired by the outcomes of the Bandung Conference in 1955 where 29 Asian and African countries resolved not to take either side of the East or the West, it is clear that Sobukwe acknowledged that African countries had a fundamental duty of building inclusive and effective state institutions, policies and systems to replace the foreign systems which were imposed by the colonialist.

Numerous African and Asian countries are still adhering to the principles of the Non-Aligned Movement in the current conflicts between Israel and Hamas as well as Russia and Ukraine. South Africa has recently made headlines when it took Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the accusations of genocide by Israel against the people of Gaza.

Pretoria’s foreign policy has shifted from the West to the East political and economic bloc. In 2010, under the country’s controversial former leader, Jacob Zuma, South Africa joined BRICS to become BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and SA) a move that was seen as the adoption of the “Look East Policy”. South Africa has sought to strengthen its ties with East powers such as Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, and others in recent years.

Ever since the ANC emerged as South Africa’s governing party in 1994, it has confounded many with a seemingly inconsistent foreign policy taking contradicting stances on global issues. End result, the ANC stands exposed as hypocrites. They do not see anything wrong with supporting and associating with Russia’s Vladimir Putin whom they believe is a hero for invading and mass killing Ukrainians but accuse Israel of committing genocide when it responds in defense of its people.

The ANC is complacent about what the ruling tyrant ZANU-PF party is doing to its oppressed people. Today, nearly four out of every five Zimbabweans just about survives in absolute poverty. Zimbabweans on average are poorer now than they were at independence in 1980. Zimbabwe’s grave humanitarian crisis is only being met by increased state repression. It is mind-boggling to think that while the Zimbabweans have been oppressed in the backyard of South Africa for decades, our ANC government turns a blind eye and instead focuses on issues taking place a continent away! If South Africa cares about the welfare of people and the abuse of human rights, why has it turned its back on the long-suffering neighbouring Zimbabweans?

With the ANC’s erratic foreign policy – dubious at best on issues of morality – it came as little surprise to read about the unholy meeting between Cyril Ramaphosa and Mohamed Hamden Dagalo who is chiefly implicated in the 2005 genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Well, we should all remember that the International Criminal Court ruled that South Africa was guilty for failure to arrest the former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir who is accused of war crimes, genocide, and violations of human rights. 

Instead, South Africa, under the ANC, is continuing to use every little chance they get to delegitimize the State of Israel. This obsession by the ANC has nothing to do with resolving the historical and political impasse between Israel and Palestine. Trivialized and politicized, the Israel-Palestine issue is now used as an electioneering weapon to deflect and defocus the attention and sobriety of voters who are so disillusioned with the bad record of Nelson Mandela’s party.

If we are really to believe that our foreign policy is premised on the principles and values of human rights, why does the ANC not apply the same humanitarian concern to its neighbour – the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe? 

I am just worried by the ANC’s growing and increasing coziness with Hamas, a terrorist group that does not have regard for the people they claim to be waging the struggle for. Does the ANC know that Hamas has been diverting funds meant for the civil services of the people of Gaza since 2005 to build tunnels and buy armaments in a bid to eradicate the State of Israel? And furthermore, is the ANC so ignorant that it is unaware that when Hamas supporters chant – including our foreign minister Naledi Mandisa Pandor – “From the river to the sea” that they mean the destruction of the Jewish State.

A SEA CHANGE
Whatever happened to the ANC when on the eve of South Africa’s democracy three decades ago condemned the senseless attacks by the PAC against innocent civilians because they were White? The ANC then encouraged dialogue thus preventing a huge loss of life and lambasted those who were calling for white people to be driven off into the sea. That ANC is today is unrecognizable! Where they once stood for not driving the Whites into the sea, today they embrace killers whose sole aim is to drive the Jews of Israel into the sea. 

About the writer:

Kenneth Mokgatlhe is a political writer and columnist studying Master’s at Ben Gurion University in Israel.

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