FOREIGN POLICY OP-ED
What explains South Africa’s tortured like-and-loathe path to hypocrisy?
Exactly a week after Ramaphosa’s tea with a Sudanese warlord, South Africa was at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, arguing a case of genocide against Israel. It turns out that South Africa has no guiding foreign policy. It has countries and leaders that it likes, and those that it loathes.
On 4 January, President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan, General Mohamed Dagalo, aka Hemedti, at his official residence in Pretoria.
It was smiles and giggles all around as the two posed for photographers. In an official statement after the meeting, Ramaphosa “welcomed” the briefing by Dagalo and said he supported “immediate face-to-face dialogue” to solve the Sudanese civil war.
On 4 January, President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted the leader of the Rapid Support Forces of Sudan, General Mohamed Dagalo, aka Hemedti, at his official residence in Pretoria. (Photo: GCIS)
It was an extraordinary meeting with a man who is behind some of Africa’s most grotesque war crimes. Before seizing power in a coup, Dagalo had been chosen by the then Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, to lead the RSF, which was sent to gain control of rebel-held areas in the Darfur region of Sudan.
What followed was a string of brutal war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to a Human Rights Watch report titled Men With No Mercy based on interviews with 151 survivors who fled Sudan:
“The RSF committed a wide range of horrific abuses, including the forced displacement of entire communities; the destruction of wells, food stores and other infrastructure necessary for sustaining life in a harsh desert environment; and the plunder of the collective wealth of families, such as livestock. Among the most egregious abuses against civilians were torture, extrajudicial killings and mass rapes.”
According to researcher Eric Reeves, about 600,000 are believed to have died in Sudan’s brutal pogroms.
You could come up with a valid, if somewhat tortured, explanation for why it was legitimate for Ramaphosa to meet Dagalo and to hold back on criticism of his warlord habits. It would go along these lines: South Africa has a pragmatic foreign policy which seeks to bring together implacable enemies, even those in bitter armed conflict with each other, in the interests of forging peace.
When South Africa was criticised for failing to support UN resolutions condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the argument was made that it was more important to stay in contact with both sides so that peace talks could be encouraged than to condemn one side for its failure to adhere to international law.
That would at least suggest there was a semblance of coherent policy behind the government’s failure to speak out against aggressors.
If such an approach was indeed in place, it would dictate that, when it comes to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, South Africa would keep its powder dry and, staying in close contact with both sides, seek to coax the parties towards peace talks through “immediate face-to-face” dialogue, to quote Ramaphosa on the Sudanese conflict.
But exactly a week after Ramaphosa’s tea with the warlord, South Africa was at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, arguing a case of genocide against Israel. It turns out that South Africa has no guiding foreign policy. It has countries and leaders that it likes and those that it loathes.
This can be the only reason that it has taken a very different and openly confrontational approach with Israel.
Instead of tea, coaxing towards dialogue and assiduously finding and exploring common ground, South Africa withdrew its diplomats from Israel, passed a parliamentary resolution to expel Israel’s ambassador and took it to court for genocide.
In a statement issued with unusual speed, on 7 October, the government ignored the Hamas terror attack that had taken place on that day and instead talked about “the recent devastating escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. The use of the word ‘recent’ was odd as the Hamas killings had occurred on that day. The statement anticipated Israel’s response by warning against heavy-handed reaction.
A shift to the authoritarian camp
Why does South Africa loathe Israel, despise the US, dislike “the West”, but tolerate Russia and Sudanese warlords? The answer lies in South Africa’s decision to abandon its “non-aligned” position and shift decisively from the democratic to the authoritarian camp as the world consolidates itself into increasingly hostile blocs.
Our new friends are the likes of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran — the latter whom we have brought out of isolation with an invitation to join BRICS.
Arguing the case for South Africa’s Israeli exceptionalism in News24, South Africa’s director-general of international relations and cooperation, Zane Dangor, said South Africa was “duty-bound to prevent and punish acts of genocide”.
Apparently, Israel is the only country in the world that “duty-bound” South Africa has found to have fallen on the wrong side of international human rights law, and neither Sudan nor Iran where the Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi languishes in jail while the regime’s proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah foment regional strife, nor China for its persecution of ethnic minorities, nor Venezuela, nor Uganda nor Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
When you add to this the country’s decision not to allow a Jewish captain of its Under-19 cricket team, you start to get the strong odour of anti-Semitism, a charge which the South African Jewish community has already aired.
Writing in the Jewish Report under the headline Is it time to go?, Howard Sackstein said:
“The clock ticked and stopped on 7 October 2023. The behaviour of the South African government was nothing short of betrayal. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s failure to condemn the 7 October massacre; his failure to reach out to the families of the two South Africans massacred in the Hamas genocide; his failure to act on the two South Africans kidnapped by Hamas; and his smirk blame of Israel for deserving the attack two weeks after the massacre, while wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh, will forever be a symbol of his Judas moment.”
Of course, the correct foreign policy approach for South Africa is to leverage its human rights record to promote democracy and the rule of law by speaking out firmly against breaches of international law, and also to use the example of the negotiated end of apartheid as leverage to help bring warring parties to peace talks.
Dangor said: “What we have not done, as so ridiculously alleged by some, is to take money from Iran or act on the behest of Iran or any other state.”
Tehran cannot believe its luck. It has a democracy wearing the somewhat frayed threads of Nelson Mandela’s halo completely on its side in the Israel conflict. If it is true that Iran is not paying for this bonanza, Dangor should sue them. DM
Greg Mills and Ray Hartley work for The Brenthurst Foundation.
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This posture is not new. Mbeki warmly embraced Mugabe the author of one of the most brutal mass killings of a different ethnic grouping in Africa in recent times and every malicious thug who fitted into the ANC’s category of ” the previously oppressed ” has been likewise lionised and lauded. In this worldview Israel is an ” oppressor ” by the lights if the ANC
People who believed that the ANC were ever committed to human rights were duped. The quote from Mr Sackstein is in one sense incisive. In another respect one may ask why it has taken people like him 25 odd years to wake up.
Correct.. the ANC has its own form of bigotry the thing is it isn’t even aware of it
Seemingly the President likes to sleep with any sort of feral dogs, providing they are not Jewish dogs.
Whether this extends to Zane Dangor and the Foreign Minister is debatable, but Direco seems out of control.
Never mind “people like him” – it’s taken most of us in this benighted country 25 years to wake up to just how corrupt, destructive, and self – serving the ANC are. SA is one of the unhappiest places on earth, it has the greatest income disparity in the world, the highest number of reported daily rapes in the world etc etc. The ICJ case has exposed many ugly facts about SA and the rainbow nation is nothing more than a joke. Iran, Hamas, the SA government – they’ll come for you next, so you’d better be awake.
I am of the opinion that international relations have been mismanaged by those who should have done better. There are a lot of double standards and most countries are caught up in a sea of hypocrisy that prevails on the international relations scene. The failure of multilateral organisations to provide unbiased leadership when it comes to the war on terror for example has undone a lot of work that has been done for so many decades. But at the end of the day, what matters is not justice or the idea of justice but what matters is that reality and the laws we put in place to negotiate with physical laws such as time, space, energy, matter are breakable. But physical laws we seek to break are unbreakable
Can anyone tell me what this post actually means?????
It means Multilateral organisations such as UN have neglected their responsibility to lead the world into a better world where all nations would be working together to build a better world
A standard response by anti-Israel ANC apologists to accusations of ANC hypocrisy and double-standards is “Whataboutism. We are talking about Israel/Jews now” So lets turn this on its head and say “Never mind what prevails on the whole international scene, we are talking about South Africa/ANC now” Anyone with half a mind has ceased to believe there is any integrity in anything which comes out of the mouths of cANCer functionaries. Just follow the money to and for their power and wealth and ideological positioning.. This is all that makes sense when in too many instances the good of South Africa comes a distant 2nd. The defensiveness of Dangor about Iranian funding can likewise be discounted and tells you all you need to know.
The lady doth protests too much, methinks. The lady being Dangor.
He thinks we are stupid.
I hear you and I understand where you come from. I am not anti-Semitic. I am pro Jewish, I am a big fan of Stephen Schwartzman, and other luminaries who run The hedge fund industry. I too wish to be a billionaire like my heroes in the hedge fund industry. But it has to be pointed out that USA has not been working on bringing Israel and Palestine to build a workable solution. USA has bankrolled the militarisation of the Israeli state. And this military buildup that has been evident fur a few decades within the Israeli army is itself a problematic that brings turmoil in the middle east
Long story short: Don’t mess with the Jews. They are much better friends than enemies. Cross them and your demise will either be brutal and swift, or tortuous and slow, they have no preference either way. But in the end you will be wiser.
For me it appears racist rather than rational. The darker the skin, the higher the likelihood of our government’s support.
I hang my head.
The Ruskies are very pale even by European standards.
That is true. …even fundamentally racist policies can be trumped by large enough backhanders.
From 1990 to 2022, Israel’s population grew 200% (4 800 00 to 9 600 000), Palestinec’s 250% (2 000 000 t0 5 000 000). During that same period, ‘white’ South Africans went from 5 000 000 to 4 600 000 (92%).
In 1945 there was 758 000 Jews in Arab countries. Today there are
8 000 Jews (0.o1%) in Arab countries.
If 250% is genocide what is 0.01% ? A blessing?
8 000 is a bit more than 1% of 758 000. Sorry. My bad.
24 000 dead is also a bit over 1% of the Gazan population.
The bristle of outrage makes the argument hard to swallow. Does comparing one evil with another excuse any foul behaviour? Do I understand that the authors believe there is a right side to what is happening in Gaza? That the men in the war room of the Israeli state are righteous in their actions? I see the court case as an excellent chess move, if the court rules in favour of South Africa, then it allows all parties to stop the carnage while saving face. The extreme right-wing coalition leaders of Israel are clearly not interested in that, but the UK, USA and EU may discover this is a good way to get back onto the humane side of history and move the world off this path of violent escalation. A Jahnel
When a 10 year old walks into the kithcen and before his mother says a word, says : ” I didn’t drink all the coke” , it pretty well points to him being the culprit.
Dangor said: “What we have not done, as so ridiculously alleged by some, is to take money from Iran or act on the behest of Iran or any other state.”
Dangor speaks in riddles, not to be trusted at all.
I have no doubt that the ANC has taken money from both Iran and Russia. Dangor knows that there is no paper trail as the money was probably transferred via a diplomatic bag so he is able to deny, deny, deny. In effect SA (read ANC) is for hire to run interference against any Western backed country.
The hypocrisy of this brain-dead bunch of oxygen thieves is mind-numbing. But then that assumes they have minds.
Non-alignment does not equal neutrality. Switzerland and Austria are neutral, South African and the G77 are non-aligned. Non-aligned also includes anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism. This is the legacy of the Non-Aligned Movement.
If you are non-aligned, how can you be anti anything?
The SA ‘struggle’ was not about human rights. Democracy was merely used as a stepping stone. It was, and is a struggle for power – to allow the ANC to do as is pleases (see ANC’s NDR) without accountability. That is why they align with similar minded and acting countries.
Excellent analysis, thank you to the authors.
Since this government is motivated to act only by cash in pockets and in duffelbags, or packed into couches, one has to wonder how much money is being passed to these ANC criminals by Arab and Iranian actors. There is another State Capture occurring that is being masked as political activism.
“Rogue state” (or sometimes “outlaw state”) is a term applied by some international theorists to states that they consider threatening to the world’s peace.
The SACP/anc’s support of terrorists has a long history and includes their own miliatary wing Umkhonto. This a political ploy in an election year that will reduce the comrade’s national support to below 50% and they are likely lose outright in Gauteng. Empty rhetoric has unintended and bad consequences. Ramaphosa and his gang are masters of this art.
South Africa’s foreign policy is as tortured and hypocritical as that of the USA and indeed of most countries. The difference however is that acting in (hopefully) the best interests of the citizens of their own country does not seem to be South Africa’s guiding principle as it is with most others.
Seems like the Anc are hell bent in supporting countries who loathe their citizens. We are going to be one if the most hated countries on this planet soon.
Forgot to say that in Africa hate Morocco (with imperfect democracy but democracy none the less), and love the one-party socialist Algeria.
Go figure.
Love Tunisia, even after the president complained about “blacks” coming in and ruining the place. (Sure they sympathised, in SA they say we have dreadful problems with darker blacks from places as far as Nigeria…)
Basically, it is not only the authoritarian camp the ANC loves, but the private jet, lots of gold, bling bling, authoritarian camp it loves the most. Wonder why?
This is one of the most level headed pieces I’ve read as far as the Israeli-Hamas(Palestinian) issue is concerned. It neither condones, nor condemns Israel or Hamas’ actions, but rather question South Africas hypocritical foreign policy. Both the Israeli-Hamas and the Russo-Ukranian conflicts have divided this country horrifically, in some cases to the detriment of friendships, family ties, professional relationships. Reason and rational thinking has left most discussions on these topics and the sad part is that it keeps on popping up in social conversations, and the outcome is always the same. Yet, few has an opinion or even any interest in what’s happening in our neighbouring state Mozambique with the IS-Moz insurgency in Cabo Delgado or any other of the multiple ISIS driven Insurgency conflicts across the continent. These are much closer to home, yet we as a nation decide to burden ourselves and divide ourselves zealously (to the point of getting personal and nasty) for the sake of two conflicts where we should have no more than a observers interest. Just my opinion. I have digressed. I just wanted to compliment the piece.
Very well said
Let’s not forget – the buffalos were paid for, and not received, in cash, but Al Bashir’s right hand man… So Ramaphosa has strong links with this crowd. Wow
Was the buffalo payment (cash in the couch) maybe a fore runner to the visit by the butcher of Darfur to Cyril?
It is indeed true – there is no foreign policy besides stand by your friends and against everybody else. Even if your friend stinks to high heavens.
Gluttony explains it.
Cyril is looking more prosperous and as happy as ever. Resplendent in his Madiba shirt with a disarming, deceptive, despotic smile while the country goes down the tubes.
This article, like many, makes a dangerous conflation between anti-zionism and anti-semitism. It says that South Africa decided “not to allow a Jewish captain of its Under-19 cricket team”. But David Teeger was removed from the captaincy (whether this was a wise move or not) for zionism, not for being jewish. He dedicated an award to the Israeli Defence Force, which is currently engaging in genocide in Gaza. Until then, jewish as he is, he was the captain of the team.
The problem with this conflation, which has been strongly promoted by the Israeli state, is that it rebounds against jewish people. They are attacked because they are jewish, for the sins of zionists. Zionism is a political movement, not supported by many jewish people, which has supported the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and their land – made to disappear in the slogan “A land with out a people for a people without a land”. To be opposed to that is not anti-semitic. It is anti-zionist.
There is so much historical distortion about this comment it is difficult to know where to start. Zionism was a national liberation movement (you might have heard of one or two) for a People under centuries of severe stress to return to their ancient national homeland, many times conquered and occupied, but never forgotten . Zion = Jerusalem. The modern day movement was initiated when the land was under Ottoman rule. It required the permission of the rulers of the day for Jews to come and settle there, either on empty land or by land purchase. It never supported expulsion, mass or otherwise, of people living there. Displacement and population movement internationally is a function of war/s, the M-E Conflict caused by the violent Arab rejectionism of a non-national land being divided between a Jewish and Palestinian states. That is their right but there are consequences. We don’t have to go into a basic history lesson. A Palestinian national identity was only formed in opposition to Zionism and the PLO established in 1964 by the Arab League to unify the resistance. The vast majority of world Jewry is Zionist and it is a canard to state otherwise. The antisemitic bigoted aspect of anti-Zionism is that Arab nationalism is O K but somehow it is Jews who are not allowed amongst all Peoples of the world to possess a nation-state in their ancestral homeland.
Unfortunately people dont see the difference. We as humans are made in a way that insists our egos get thr better of our common sense. If indeed we have any.
HAhahahaha
“What explains South Africa’s tortured like-and-loathe path to hypocrisy?”
Why, it’s simple. The ANC has one single overriding priority, namely to stay in power with a sufficient margin. Every other consideration is secondary, even tangential. Morality, correctness, hypocrisy, and consequences be damned, there is no subterfuge, ploy, scam, propaganda, lie, swindle, or ruse so debauched that it will not be contemplated, including getting into bed with tyrants and mass murderers. And the reason for this willingness to cheat and deceive and BS is purely pragmatic: The ruling class will do everything in its power to remain flush, fed, and pampered right up to the point of SA’s economic collapse, and very likely even beyond. In short, the ANC’s depravity, driven solely by individual greed and avarice, is fathomless, and fully explains its egregious opportunism in all contexts.
To probe for any other motives is a total waste of time and ink.
Par for the Course unfortunately.
The sickening hypocrisy of this South African goverment continues the policy started 100 years ago.
Does not make me in any way want to associate with being “South African”.
In the company of the so-called Western leaders, president Ramphosa is a nobody, in his new group of associates he is somebody😈
He’s nothing more than a puppet that dances for a couple of Dinar for the enjoyment of his new masters
Such hypocricy, embarrasing!