Key topics:
- Ramaphosa’s criticism of Trump may worsen US-South Africa relations.
- Trump’s opposition to DEI could challenge South Africa’s BEE policies.
- South Africa risks diplomatic isolation over its stance on global conflicts.
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By Chuck Stephens*
President Ramaphosa has shown a reckless streak in his recent engagement with the USA.
Most leaders including the UK’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron have looked for ways to find rapprochement with the Trump administration. For example, Starmer pledged higher levels of military spending on the eve of his recent visit to the White House.
But then Starmer’s days are numbered, and his King knows it. The surge of support for Nigel Farage’s Reform Party is the new trending, just as Germany’s vote swung to the right. So the King sent an unprecedented invitation to Trump for a second state visit. Instead, Ramaphosa has gone ballistic about Trump’s revisionism – like cancelling USAID funding, freezing aid to South Africa, sanctioning the ICC and taking Netanyahu off the leash that his predecessor had pulled tight.
In speeches, Ramaphosa has been vocally critical of Trump and this is counter-intuitive. In his first term, Trump once referred to some “shit-hole countries” in Africa. He clearly has a low view of African countries to start with. And given the number of wars currently been waged on the continent and the horrific Jihad atrocities, Africa’s reputation is getting more and more tarnished.
The crunch will come over BEE, which in short is a policy of affirmative action that favours the majority. To many, this is nonsensical because by definition, affirmative action is supposed to protect minorities. The extent to which this peculiar policy is helping or hindering South Africa’s economy is debatable. But given the way Trump despises DEI in general, it will be a hard sell to convince him that there is any value in it. He sees it in a very dime light.
I am old enough to remember the debate over whether sanctions were needed to squeeze the “racist regime”. Maggie Thatcher thought these would hurt blacks more than whites. It was a huge controversy. Until some other conservatives in the Commonwealth like Canada’s P.M. Brian Mulroney persuaded her to go along with them. But even back then, although racism was despised by all, economic sanctions were controversial. That is the way it will be with BEE in the very near future.
The Trump team is adamantly opposed to DEI, and is erasing it throughout the USA. Now U.N. Ambassador Stephanik is already talking about exporting or internationalizing DOGE. They are upbeat about it and feel like it is needed elsewhere as well. That should sound a warning to the strident voices trying to topple the US dollar and leverage the ICC to imprison US allies.
The day may come when South Africa is once again a pariah among the nations – not for apartheid this time, but for another version of discrimination. Remember the Durban Declaration warning that new manifestations of discrimination were likely to arise. This may have been a comment (at the time) on the Rwanda genocide which had recently occurred in the run-up to this World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance…
“Preamble: Alarmed by the emergence and continued occurrence of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in their more subtle and contemporary forms and manifestations, as well as by other ideologies and practices based on racial or ethnic discrimination or superiority.
“Article 17: We note the importance of paying special attention to new manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance to which youth and other vulnerable groups might be exposed.
“Article 62. We are conscious that humanity’s history is replete with terrible wrongs inflicted through lack of respect for the equality of human beings and note with alarm the increase of such practices in various parts of the world, and we urge people, particularly in conflict situations, to desist from racist incitement, derogatory language and negative stereotyping;
“Article 94. We reaffirm that the stigmatization of people of different origins by acts or omissions of public authorities, institutions, the media, political parties or national or local organizations is not only an act of racial discrimination but can also incite the recurrence of such acts, thereby resulting in the creation of a vicious circle which reinforces racist attitudes and prejudices, and which must be condemned;
“Article 172. Urges States to protect the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and to develop appropriate legislative and other measures to encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity, in order to protect them from any form of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. In this context, forms of multiple discrimination should be fully taken into account;”
South Africa should remember the incisive words of Jesus: “You strain out gnats, but you swallow camels”.
Ten percent of South African citizens are white. The inverse of that is true in the USA, where ten percent of the population is African America. Part of the African diaspora. Global blackness.
The Trump team is opposing DEI – in other words affirmative action – on the basis of race. It is turning towards meritocracy. It wants people to be hired on the basis of their competency, not on the basis of their colour. And as this trending deepens and spreads, South Africa may once again be singled out – not for minority rule, but for the majority’s intolerance.
It seems that South Africa’s efforts to have the Gaza War declared a genocide have been overtaken by events. More and more countries in the Middle East are talking of expanding the Abraham Accords. Hezbollah has been told to retreat north of the Litani, to comply with the U.N. resolution. The Lebanese want their own army to defend their territory, not a foreign bully.
Israel demands that the new Syria demilitarize south of Damascus. Where Gaza is headed, no one can be sure, but prospects of the Two-State Solution are dimming. Judea and Samaria may soon be annexed as the Golan Heights were during Trump’s first term.
The point is that to coddle up to Iran and Russia because South Africa is desperate for their nuclear energy technology is ill-advised. To quote Albert Einstein, repeating the same thing time and again and expecting a different result is crazy. Thabo Mbeki tried to take on Big Pharma to polish up his socialist credentials. It ended badly for him. The same thing will happen to Cyril Ramaphosa if he keeps trying to polish up his BRICS credentials by attacking Trump.
What is reality? According to science fiction writer Philip K Dick, “Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” Ramaphosa needs some strong doses of reality to help him remember the old adage: “I have often regretted my words, seldom my silence.”
Read also:
- Patrick McLaughlin: President Ramaphosa is playing dangerous games with global superpowers
- Frans Cronjé: Attack on Israel/US by Ramaphosa in yesterday’s FP will end very badly for SA
- Ramaphosa slammed for targeting Israel amid South Africa’s murder crisis: ‘Victims could fill FNB stadium’ – André Pienaar
*Chuck Stephens: Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership
