Pandor’s pandering fails to douse US ire

Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Naledi Pandor was in Washington this week in what is seen by some as a “desperate lobbying attempt” to patch up strained relations with the United States (US) as tensions between the two nations over South Africa’s foreign policy mounts.

The United States House of Representatives is reviewing a Bill that questions the country’s relationship with South Africa. The Bill accuses South Africa of building ties with countries and “malign actors” that undermine US national security.

“The Bill is a response to the ANC government’s ongoing support of Hamas and other bad actors against Israel, and misusing the good name of South Africa to delegitimise Israel’s right to self-defence,” said Rowan Polovin, national chairperson of the South African Zionist Federation. “Pandor appears to have received a chilly reception, and her last-ditch efforts failed to prevent a bipartisan vote of 36-13 in favour of the Bill moving forward,” he said.

According to political analysts, South Africa’s nonaligned stance on Russia and Ukraine and its anti-Israel stance on the war in the Middle East has marked a turning point in the relationship between our two countries. It goes deeper, with a string of questionable anti-West incidents which have raised the ire of the US and her allies. Cozying up to Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation; making a visit to Teheran in the wake of the 7 October attack; and hosting trilateral naval exercises with China and Russia are a few of these.

The latest Bill, approved by the United States House’s Foreign Affairs Committee last week, calls on the administration to conduct a comprehensive review of US relations with South Africa, including South Africa’s continued eligibility for benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The bipartisan Bill was prompted by criticism from several members of Congress of South Africa’s position on Russia’s war against Ukraine as well as Pretoria’s stance on Israel’s war against Hamas. South Africa’s submission of genocide charges against Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its war on Gaza has done much to upset conservatives in Congress.

International affairs analyst Steven Gruzd said, “It appears that there will be consequences for South Africa from the US for the foreign policy stances that it has taken on issues like Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran, especially over the past two years. The process of reviewing US relations with South Africa still needs to make its way through Congress. It’s not a done deal, but it has put South Africa on notice and prompted Pandor’s trip.”

The Bill, titled the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act, was tabled by Republicans and Democrats.

John James, a Republican from Michigan, introduced the legislation together with Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz on 6 February, after South Africa’s decision to take Israel to the ICJ.

Several other legislators subsequently co-sponsored the Bill, which states that the South African government “has a history of siding with malign actors, including Hamas, a US-designated foreign terrorist organisation and a proxy of the Iranian regime, and continues to pursue closer ties with the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation”.

Said Gruzd, “South Africa is asserting its sovereignty, but is at odds with the superpower. It won’t have liked having to mount this rear-guard action in the US, but it will defend its choices.”

Pandor has reacted to the US Bill with disbelief.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, she said there was the implication that when America held a particular position, South Africa must follow. “It’s interesting that other countries that share the perspective that South Africa holds aren’t being dealt with in the way we are,” she said.

She didn’t know whether it was because “we’re African”, or because of the stance South Africa had taken in respect to the war in Israel and having approached the ICJ, all of which “may be causing some discomfort or disquiet”, but she said she hoped to “repair the relationship”.

Pandor has been quoted as saying, “Our underlying fundamental philosophy in foreign policy is always to seek peace and negotiation. We’re mandated by the Freedom Charter to pursue international peace and friendship.”

This from the same minister who recently encouraged anti-Israel protests outside Western embassies, and told South African citizens who serve in the Israeli army, “When you come home, we’re going to arrest you.”

In conversation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the topic, “Are SA-US relations at a turning point?” Pandor said members of Congress “make conclusions about South Africa’s international relations without necessarily speaking to us, and this is troubling”.

“One of the things as a young activist I learnt from the US is a belief in freedom and democracy, and that means we might have different ideas, it doesn’t mean we agree on everything, and so to seek to punish South Africa because there’s a disagreement on particular policy areas is a most unfortunate response,” she said.

According to DIRCO, Pandor was in the US to “affirm the very positive relationship between South Africa and the United States of America, to continue to advocate for a greater economic partnership … as well as the continued participation of South Africa in the African Growth and Opportunity Act.”

“We will see how this pans out,” Gruzd said. “But cutting South Africa off from AGOA might have the opposite effect – driving it into the arms of Russia, China and Iran.”

“The ANC is attempting to shift its orientation towards BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates] countries, to more radical revolutionary players in the world, while at the same time trying to placate and pacify existing Western markets,” said political analyst Daniel Silke, who described Pandor’s Washington stint as “an attempt at damage control”.

“South Africa needs to wake up to what these legislators are saying,” he said. “The damage to South Africa’s economy can be substantial. At the same time, however, it’s not in the interests of the US to act punitively against South Africa but to keep it engaged with the West ”

In his weekly newsletter released on Monday, 25 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa said South Africa had “deliberately avoided aligning our country with any of the major powers or blocs”.

Ramaphosa said the Bill provided an opportunity for discussion, through which South Africa could clarify its foreign policy positions.

Contrary to what the Bill posits, Ramaphosa maintained that South Africa was a neutral state that promoted peace, security, and development on the African continent and across the world.