By Alec Hogg
The below note is published from Alec’s daily Boardroom Talk email which is sent to BizNews Premium subscribers
Our partners at the Financial Times in London offer a window into how the world is viewing South Africa. It’s currently with little affection. Yesterday, the FT’s Editorial Board laid out SA’s options in the aftermath of the arms-to-Russia debacle. It was communicated in a way even the dimmest Pretoria bureaucrats should grasp.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___In essence, the FT’s editorial board says SA’s foreign minister Naledi Pandor (69), whose pre-political life was teaching English and whose entire academic career was in education, needs to fast-track her own learning. Especially about how things work in the Big Leagues. For instance, how you don’t get to have your cake and eat it.
The FT reckons Pandor can choose to tell off the USA and insist that as a sovereign state SA will be friends with whomever it wants. But, it also means she must take responsibility. The FT concludes: “If Pretoria wants to throw in its lot with Putin, that is its choice. But it should realise that such choices have consequences.” You can read the article here.
What the Londoners don’t mention, however, is that it is not Pandor and her cronies who will suffer the consequences of her actions. SA cabinet ministers are consciously shielded against unemployment, escalating crime, even loadshedding. They only apply to those the ANC misgoverns.
Roll on 2024.
Sterkte.
Alec
Read more:
- SA in Bloomberg global newsletter’s spotlight: “Embracing Putin is a gamble”
- John Steenhuisen calls out Ramaphosa over Russian arms deal
- The mysterious Lady R: More questions re SA’s arms-to-Russia claims with Prof Esterhuyse
