Key topics
- SA gov’t struggles with US diplomacy as DA, Afriforum gain access.
- US closely monitors SA’s ties with Russia and Iran amid foreign policy shifts.
- ANC’s financial woes linked to alleged foreign funding and ICJ case decisions.
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By RW Johnson ___STEADY_PAYWALL___
When the DA delegation which had been visiting Washington DC returned home and spoke of the conversations it had held with US officials at the State Department and in Congress, the minister for foreign affairs, Ronald Lamola, was visibly discomforted and sharply insisted that representing SA abroad was entirely a matter for the executive. The DA’s spokespersons were not unkind enough to make the obvious retort: “But the US government doesn’t want to talk to you, does it ?” For, of course, as both President Ramaphosa and Mr Lamola have admitted, their multiple attempts to make contact with Washington have met with no response. The sight of Afriforum and now DA delegations being warmly received in Washington is no doubt infuriating to the government, hence the campaign to blacken Afriforum’s name with accusations of treason.
This is symbolic of the utter mess the government has created in foreign affairs. The overall impression is that the government is way out of its depth and has been blundering into more and more trouble because its vision is so occluded by parochialism and ideology that it doesn’t understand the implications of its own actions.
Let us go back to the Lady R affair in December 2022. According to the government, it didn’t know the Russian ship, Lady R, was heading to South Africa until it was turned away from the port of Ngqura-PE because it was sanctioned, whereupon it was re-directed – presumably by the government – to dock at Simonstown instead. No explanation is offered as to why it was not directed to the much larger port of Cape Town but there seems little doubt that the government was trying to attract minimum publicity. There must have been a considerable conversation between Pretoria and Moscow, but this is just one of the areas kept secret. The Lady R switched off its identification transponder because it was being tracked by (un-named) “foreign intelligence agencies” and sneaked into Simonstown where it unloaded and loaded its cargoes at night and under armed guard.
US foreign and defence policy has been re-focused away from Europe and the Middle East towards the Indo-Pacific Oceans, the decisive area in the contest between the US and China. This has given an enhanced importance to the ports along the East African coast from Sudan and Djibouti on down, where all the great powers have been busily setting up naval bases. This has also increased the significance of the ports of Richards Bay, Durban, Ngqura and Cape Town, potentially the largest of all the African ports on the Indian Ocean. Undoubtedly the US will have been watching the Lady R, using satellite and other surveillance technology.
Reuben Brigety II, the US ambassador, accused South Africa of having loaded weapons and ammunition onto the Lady R and said he was so confident of this that “I would bet my life on it”. This was, he said, something ”which does not suggest to us the action of a non-aligned country”. This led to uproar, government denials, and the setting up of a three member panel under retired judge, Phineas Mojapelo, to enquire into the matter.
This panel was the usual ANC closed shop: Mojapelo was the former President of the Black Lawyers Association and had been a classmate of Ramaphosa’s at Turfloop. The other members were Enver Surty, a former ANC cabinet minister, and Leah Gcabashe, former head of Legal Services in the Presidency. Even if its report had been published, many would have doubted the panel’s impartiality but in fact its report was kept secret though the government claimed that it had been exonerated. It would be naive to imagine such an exercise could convince anyone outside the ANC.
In fact it seems certain that Brigety had his own reasons for confidence. The likelihood is that the Lady R’s activities were observed closely not just by satellite but by CIA agents on the spot. (In previous journalistic enquiries I have had to make over the years I have been struck by the CIA’s extensive and active presence in SA and by how well informed they seemed to be.) It is also more than likely that the US National Security Agency was monitoring and reading South Africa’s electronic and phone communications – US communications surveillance satellites have had that ability for many years. So it would be sensible to assume that the US was privy to all SA government communications, even the most confidential, and knew exactly what was going on.
The Lady R affair should have been a major warning. South Africa has always relied heavily on its contacts with the Black Congressional Caucus for its influence in Washington, particularly during Democratic administrations. But here was Reuben Brigety, a distinguished Afro-American – he had been a high official in the State Department, had served as Dean of International Affairs at George Washington university and was the former President of the University of the South in Tennessee – openly accusing Pretoria of lying and of betraying its claim to non-alignment. If that could happen under a Democratic administration, Pretoria would be in very serious trouble if a Republican administration came to power.
The same assumptions about US surveillance should surely be made about South Africa’s contacts with Iran, for Iran’s declared enmity towards the US (“the Great Satan”) make this a hyper-sensitive area. Naledi Pandor paid a visit to Tehran on October 22, 2023, having just co-chaired the SA-Iran Joint Commission on Cooperation with the Iranian foreign minister in Pretoria. Theoretically the reason for her visit was to cancel/postpone the State Visit to SA of the Iranian President because it was realised that, with the AGOA Forum coming up the next week, the optics would have been very bad. Iran, after all, quite openly sponsors terrorist movements, wants to wipe Israel off the map and is in every sense a rogue state.
It seems likely, however, that either then or shortly thereafter a deal was done in which Iran helped bail the ANC out of its financial problems in return for Pretoria launching its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The timing is significant: Pretoria filed its case against Israel early in December 2023 and within a fortnight the ANC had suddenly paid off its R102 million debt to Ezulweni and the back salaries of ANC officials, unpaid for six months, were also paid. Someone had clearly given the ANC a large lump of money – probably (illegally) in cash, since the only declared donation was for R10 million. At the same time Pretoria began to advocate that Iran be admitted to BRICS. It must be assumed that Washington observed all this and was aware of the transactions which took place.
It seems likely that Tehran must have given Pretoria a very large lump sum because the ANC then continued to pay its way, including through the (very expensive) 2024 election campaign. True, the ANC also received Russian help but the greater part of Russian financial aid seems to have gone to Jacob Zuma’s MKP. In American eyes, of course, few things could be worse than Pretoria acting as a proxy for Iran in the ICJ case. Even Joe Biden thought it “preposterous” and “disgraceful” that South Africa should seek to attack Israel just after it had been the victim of a major atrocity committed by Hamas, effectively taking Hamas’s side.
However, the ANC consumes money at a great rate and its bad result in 2024 will have inevitably hurt its fund-raising efforts. So at the end of February 2025 it again failed to pay its staff salaries. It also still hasn’t paid the various suppliers and service providers it had hired for its January 2025 birthday celebrations – indeed, it appears that some of the bills for its January 2024 celebration are still outstanding as well. So once again it is in a desperate financial state.
This is almost certainly the background to the decision of the ANC’s First Deputy Secretary-General, Nomvula Mokonyane, to meet with an Iranian delegation on March 4. Ms. Mokonyane is known as a brash and determined cadre – “Mama Action” – who has left a trail of destruction behind her. Her tenure as Minister for Water and Sanitation saw the almost complete destruction and bankruptcy of that ministry, something which has no small role in the woeful story of water shortages since then. The Zondo Commission also recommended that she be charged with corruption for taking bribes from Bosasa. None of this seems to have cramped her style or prevented the ANC from giving her high office.
Typically enough, Ms Mokonyane was quite open about her meeting with the Iranians, although in the present context of US-SA relations there is great sensitivity over such contacts. But if the ANC is going bankrupt once again – for it is a regular event – the imperative of emergency fund-raising doubtless over-rides all other considerations. It is probably no coincidence that the ANC leadership is now reported to have “lost its appetite” for sending a deputation to Washington to try to bargain with the Trump administration.
Apart from the fact that no one in Washington seems willing to accept such a visit, South Africa’s ICJ case is a principal reason for American anger with Pretoria. The sight of the ANC continuing to consort with Tehran and perhaps acting again as an Iranian proxy would simply re-double American wrath. And, once again, one must assume that the ANC’s actions are being closely observed and monitored in Washington. One can only assume that Pretoria has already written AGOA off since this is bound to be a result of this suicidal foreign policy.
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