Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor. (Photo:Gallo Images/Daily Maverick/Victoria O'Regan)|Emma Powell. Photo:Democratic Alliance International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor was asked this question in Parliament this week. South Africa is hosting the BRICS summit in August and BRICS includes not only three democracies — South Africa, Brazil and India — but also two autocracies, Russia and China, where democracy and human rights don’t feature.
Speaking in the budget of Pandor’s department, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on international relations Emma Powell noted that Pandor had told a seminar on Tuesday that the BRICS nations were now actively working together to “challenge the global predominance of values and principles that have been promoted over many decades.”
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“What are these values that you now seek to challenge, Minister?” Powell asked. “ Freedom? Justice? Tolerance? Universal Human Rights? Democracy? In the same breath, the ANC has justified their failure to condemn Russia’s invasion of a sovereign state under the spurious auspices of so-called ‘nonalignment’’ Powell said.
“Imagine if the international community had refused assistance to this nation under the same auspices during the apartheid regime? You see, the plagues of despotism, genocide, and war are only defeated when democracies work together to preserve a rules-based international order that respects the right to self-determination; the principle of territorial sovereignty and a rules-based international order,” Powell, said.
Pandor replied to Powell that on values and principles “we will challenge double standards.” She said South Africa was not opposing values and principles and human rights but the practice of double standards in international relations.
“If you are black, you practice genocide. If you are white and powerful it’s regime change. When it’s sovereignty, it’s sovereignty for some. When it’s territorial integrity, it’s territorial integrity for some and not for others. That’s what we will challenge. And I think you should challenge it. Just as much as you are concerned about what is happening in Ukraine, so should you be concerned about what is happening to Palestinians. Because if you are not, you are exercising a double standard in that Palestinians don’t matter so much but that Ukrainians matter a great deal.”
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Pandor also said she was concerned that much of Parliament’s discussion about insecurity and conflict had been about Ukraine and Russia and not about fellow Africans. “We must be concerned about Africans and the threats they face every day. We should be worried about food insecurity on the continent. We shouldn’t stand up here and pretend we’re European. We’re not. We’re part of Africa and we must have attention to the condition of Africa.”
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Powell accused the ANC of hypocrisy, noting that it was global solidarity which had helped it defeat apartheid but it was now “turning its back on the very values and global solidarity that helped to ensure South Africa’s freedom..”.
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“That a crumbling, former liberation movement which now enjoys less than 50% of the popular vote, is willing to abandon South Africa’s commitment to Constitutionalism, and trade on the fortunes of 60 million people in order to protect an alleged war criminal is the clearest indication yet of the ANC’s desperation,” Powell said, referring to the ANC’s refusal to condemn Russian president Vladimir Putin for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Powell said the ANC talked about the global ‘South’ being underdeveloped because of raw material and mineral resource exploitation by the West. “But the facts tell an entirely different story. Last year, 36% of SA’s exports went to three large Western markets. Machinery, vehicles, electronics, and value-added manufactured goods, totalled some 31% of SA exports to the US, whereas a much higher percentage of raw materials were exported to BRICS countries.
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“Almost 77% of FDI (foreign direct investment) stock into South Africa in recent years came from the EU, UK and the US. China and Russia account for a mere 6.2%. Russia currently accounts for as little as 0.3% of South Africa’s trade ties.
“South Africa does not even have a trade agreement between BRICS states, whilst trade with the West worth R400bn is now at risk because of the ANC’s failure to condemn Russian aggression and the illegal invasion of Ukraine.” DM