Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema, Senegal's President Macky Sall, President of the Union of Comoros Azali Assoumani, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Egypt's Prime Minister Mustafa Madbuly visit a site of a mass grave, in the town of Bucha, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Can you imagine a philharmonic orchestra playing a symphony without a conductor?
It would be very chaotic. This is precisely how the ANC government manages the affairs of our country, where the ministers, in the absence of the president, apply their discretion and do as they please without any co-ordination, plans or accountability.
However, the party to blame for this odd style of governance is the president, who has started to pay heavily for this. This letter will focus on some of the disastrous mistakes in South Africa’s foreign policy.
A few days ago, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe refused to sign an agreement concluded after a meeting hosted by President Ramaphosa in Pretoria with prominent European leaders to launch a European-funded green energy initiative.
Mantashe claimed he didn’t read the agreement. But we know he is always against any green energy initiatives due to hidden interests. His attitude was embarrassing to Ramaphosa and his foreign guests. I cannot recall any incident like this in the diplomacy world.
We also started to see the impact of the short-sighted foreign policy of the government with Russia when Minister of International Co-operation Naledi Pandor, during the naval exercises between Russia, China and South Africa, hosted by the last, accused the US and Europe of being unfair to African countries. Because of the implied support of the ANC to Russia in its war in Ukraine, US lawmakers are now calling for the African Growth and Opportunity Act “Agoa” forum to be shifted from South Africa.
South Africa and many African countries enjoy duty-free access to the US market through this forum, besides other favourable trading terms with the West.
So, we can see how the poor foreign policy of the ANC can add more damage to our struggling economy unnecessarily, and the damage can spread quickly to local exporters, consumers and our banking system. Unless the government acts fast to contain the friction with the US and West before it’s too late.
In this regard, the ANC needs to learn from India how to strike the right balance in its foreign policy to safeguard its national interests in any international dispute.
Finally, I was happy to see President Ramaphosa leading an African delegation to both Russia and Ukraine.
I thought that he had a specific peace initiative or a plan to encourage the two parties to start negotiating to stop this crazy war, but I was shocked when I heard Ramaphosa asking President Putin to stop the war because of its impact on the African countries. He complained about the inflation and high prices of wheat, fertilisers and oil.
Putin responded aggressively, saying the African delegation was misguided because the price increases were due to the Western countries’ monopolies, not the war.
I think it would have been much better for Ramaphosa to say something like he was there with the delegation to help both parties to sit and talk to stop the killing of innocent people, the destruction of infrastructure, and to put an end to the massive economic losses on both sides.
I firmly believe that Ramaphosa needs to appoint better technocrats to reform our naïve and mystifying foreign policy.
* Dr Mahmoud Youssef Baker, Musgrave.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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