Stephan Lichtenauer | נח סתו<p>「Another lesson is that public opinion matters and the perception of the value and condition of SA has deteriorated to the point that many would question why they would now stick up for a country with anti-democratic foreign policy vectors.</p><p>[…]</p><p>After 1994, the <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/ANC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ANC</span></a> basked in the glory of global approval, the early success of the transition gaining SA a slice of the moral high ground, able to punch above its weight in international fora. But <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/NelsonMandela" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NelsonMandela</span></a> is long gone and it is apparent that the old anti-West agenda has been dusted off by a new class of politicians fond of rents and those who dispense them.</p><p>The ANC no longer has the wiggle room it once enjoyed. <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/SouthAfrica" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SouthAfrica</span></a> is now judged as any other country and is being found wanting.</p><p>[…]</p><p>There is a pattern here: South Africa takes an ill-considered position and then backpedals furiously when the diplomatic chickens come home to roost.</p><p>The trouble with this strategy is that it creates an impression that the country is not being honest about its true feelings which, on the evidence, suggests it desires a decisive pivot away from the world of <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/democratic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>democratic</span></a> nations towards that dominated by <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/authoritarians" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>authoritarians</span></a>, but wants its <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/Western" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Western</span></a> partners to ignore this.</p><p>Regrettably for South Africa, there is a growing lobby in the <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/US" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>US</span></a> and elsewhere that takes a dim view of this pivot, that wants to stop this charade and remove privileges that the country enjoys under the <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/Agoa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Agoa</span></a> trade deal, among others.</p><p>The ANC now faces the cold winds of disapproval which it is struggling to deal with, in part because it is now so full of its brand of sanctimonious ideological bunkum that it can’t see straight, because foreign policy was until now seen as a relatively cost-free domain in which to prove one’s liberation credentials in the absence of delivery at home, and partly because there may be inducements pulling it in other directions.</p><p>This is despite the fact there may be some in the ANC who realise that they have taken it a bit too far, that hostility to the Western industrial democracies comes at a cost which the ANC cannot afford, and the scrambling, spin-doctoring and schmoozing is not going to cut it. 」</p><p><a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-07-naledi-pandor-is-treading-the-pik-botha-path-to-sas-diplomatic-oblivion/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">dailymaverick.co.za/article/20</span><span class="invisible">24-04-07-naledi-pandor-is-treading-the-pik-botha-path-to-sas-diplomatic-oblivion/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/ForeignPolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ForeignPolitics</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/BrenthurstFoundation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BrenthurstFoundation</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/Pandor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pandor</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.africa/tags/NalediPandor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NalediPandor</span></a></p>