Illustrative image, from left | Russian President Vladimir Putin; ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula (Photos: Contributor / Getty Images | Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle) 
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula will this week lead the governing party’s delegation to Moscow where several political parties from the Global South will finalise the details of a structure that is being formed to confront neocolonialism.
The informal forum, which will be held from 15-17 February and will be officially launched at the end of March, is an initiative of the United Russia party, which is aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The three-day meeting is expected to recommend the establishment of a forum organising committee headed by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
While it’s unclear which parties will be present, an organising committee meeting in November 2023 included political formations from Algeria, Belarus, Brazil, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, China, Cuba, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan and South Africa, according to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to media reports, representatives from North Korea’s ruling party and Central African Republic’s president will attend this week’s meeting.
On the 15-17 February 2024, I will lead an ANC delegation to the Forum Of Supporters Of The Struggles Against Modern Practices Of Neocolonialism - For The Freedom Of Nations, in Moscow, Russia. #ANCAtWork pic.twitter.com/RI3p4IvuZn
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) February 13, 2024
A gathering concept note, titled “The concept of an Inter-Party Forum of Advocates Against Modern Neocolonialism Practice”, says that the United Nations has fallen short in creating equality between former colonial powers and colonies.
It further sets out that these former colonial powers have continued to maintain their supremacy in the modern-day political landscape.
“In practice, these countries keep exercising the right of the powerful by other means. Direct and open subordination has been replaced by a system of abusive relationships and ethnocide based, among other things, on credit dependence, illegal sanctions that bypass the UN Security Council, and the imposition of destructive cultural, religious, and educational attitudes instead of traditional values,” it reads.
Read more in Daily Maverick: South Africa’s connection with Putin’s Russia – Your burning questions answered
The formation of the forum is based on the UN General Assembly’s Resolution 1514 — Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples — adopted in 1960.
“The distinctive feature of the Forum is that it does not target any particular state or international organization and is open to broad cooperation with all interested parties by the objectives and principles of the UN Charter and the international law.
“The forum aims to promote the development of a global political system that would ensure reliable and indivisible security, global stability and justice, compliance with the benevolent non-interference principle, and respect for cultural and civilisational identities,” the concept note reads.
The proposed organising committee is intended to develop the programme of the forum for the founding event, compile a preliminary list of its participants and working bodies, and draft its final documents.
However, it has already been noted that all decisions of the committee will be made through consensus and those on technical issues will be made by a simple majority of the participants.
In an article ahead of this week’s forum, Alexey Drobinin, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Policy Planning Department, blamed the West for imposing sanctions on rivals and freezing their assets, economic exploitation and propagating “deviant sexual orientations”.
“Today, more and more states are openly opposing the unfair policy of Washington, its satellites and Western-controlled international organisations. There are more and more examples of successful interstate cooperation outside Western-centric organisations and entities.
“BRICS and the [Shanghai Cooperation Organisation] are becoming stronger, the Non-Aligned Movement has received a new lease of life, and the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations has been established at the UN,” Drobinin wrote.
SA-US relations hang in the balance
This move could further jeopardise the already troubled relationship between South Africa and the US.
Just last week, it was reported that the US House of Representatives was seeking to introduce legislation which would require the US administration to conduct a full review of US relations with South Africa because Pretoria is supposedly siding with the US’s adversaries, including Hamas, Russia and China.
If passed, the “U.S.-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act” would also require the administration to report to Congress “explicitly stating whether South Africa has engaged in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests”.
The Bill said that no later than 30 days after its enactment — if it is passed by both the House and the Senate — the US president should deliver to Congress and publicly release “an unclassified determination explicitly stating whether South Africa has engaged in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests”.
This could also affect the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) which provides preferential access to the US market for the exports of eligible African countries, including South Africa.
The US and South Africa have been at odds over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and South Africa’s support for Palestine in the war against Israel has added to the tensions, particularly SA’s application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Diplomatic fallout of ICJ ruling on Israel could put SA’s Agoa renewal at risk
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa subsequently warned that there may be “fightback campaigns” following the ICJ’s ruling and claimed that critics might want to influence South Africa’s upcoming elections.
“The fightback may focus on our domestic politics and our electoral outcomes in order to pursue a regime change agenda. Some people have said this was a David and Goliath contest,” he said.
“We must be aware that while we have done what we believe was driven by our conscience and principles, and while we took the matter to the courts which were set up by those who were there, we are blamed for taking the matter to the courts that they have set up and we should not be blamed for that,” he said at the time. DM