While Martin Luther King Jr argued that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice”, South Africa seems determined to prove him wrong. Basking in the glow of negotiated settlement, the Rainbow Nation was a poster child of the 1990s triumph of liberal democracy over tyranny, the rule of law over “might is right”. In those halcyon days of 1994, Nelson Mandela stated that human rights, justice and international law would be “the light that guides our foreign affairs”.
No longer. Last August, Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor unveiled a new framework document making national interest — not human rights and international law — the cornerstone of South Africa’s foreign policy.
Actions are clearly following words.
On the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, South African forces were conducting joint naval exercises with Russian and Chinese militaries, Pretoria welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and at the UN it is decidedly ambivalent on the fate of Ukraine. South Africa abstained from yet another motion condemning the Russian breaches of international law and allegations of war crimes last week, making that five in total.
But perhaps South Africa only ever paid cursory lip service to a foreign policy based on morality and international law. In hindsight, its foreign policy seems less a well-considered, long-term strategy and more a muddle of competing ideas.
Under Thabo Mbeki, the country became known for Aids denialism and stubborn support for the tyrant Robert Mugabe. With Jacob Zuma focusing on looting and pillaging at home, foreign policy drifted into irrelevance. At some point, South Africa was pulled into the now largely defunct BRICS grouping as an afterthought, a vainglorious attempt to hitch on to the coattails of China. After 24 February 2022 that decision has implications; choosing China means Russia, and any supposed attachment to democracy, human rights or the rule of law must be left at the door.
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Struggle-era support from the Soviets is often wheeled out as a reason for ANC loyalty towards Russia (Ukrainians sympathetic to the cause are conveniently forgotten). Such Marxist leanings evidently die hard; in his now infamous interview with eNCA, outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter spoke at length about “the ghosts of Marx and Lenin that still haunt the halls of Luthuli House. People are still firmly committed to a 1980s-style ideology. They still address one another as comrades — which is, frankly, embarrassing. They use words like lumpenproletariat, which is ridiculous.”
That might be true, but it seems reductive to the point of distortionary. National interest means realpolitik; South Africa is prioritising practical rather than moral or ideological considerations. Yet this too is unclear; whose interests are we talking about exactly? Clearly, darker and more perverse motives may also be at play.
The supposed “national interest” may have been subordinated to party and personal business; The Economist wrote last week that donations to the ANC from Russian oligarchs could be driving foreign policy. With Daily Maverick reporting on a mysterious Russian ship offloading secret cargo in Simon’s Town, one can only surmise what is actually happening behind the scenes.
The implications are profound. Perhaps, from the perspective of Pretoria, it is hard to appreciate just how far South Africa has strayed from the Western zeitgeist. Anecdotally, European corporates are openly reviewing investments in South Africa, while Peter Fabricius reported in Daily Maverick: “The US House of Representatives is considering a resolution to oppose South Africa’s current military exercise with Russia and China and to call on the Biden administration to thoroughly review America’s relationship with South Africa.” It might not seem such an extraordinary act of self-harm if the EU and the US did not comprise almost a third of South Africa’s trade, roughly twice that of China and Russia.
If South Africa’s economic and social decline is plainly evident in any human development indicator, only now has the extent of its moral decay become clear. At stake are not only foreign investment and trade deals such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
Foreign policy is indicative of what a country sees itself as being, what it wants to be, and who it aspires to emulate. Such a myopic and self-harming course of action is detrimental to all South Africans who hope to live in a country respectful of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Without order, anarchy will surely follow. Unlike King’s arc of morality, the path to hell may well be paved with nebulous and nefarious notions of the “national interest”. DM/BM