Pragmatism must rule US-SA affairs

Though it was billed as a mere “courtesy visit”, it would have been fascinating to have been a fly on the wall when United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken met President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday.

Washington still exercises the most power globally and has a large presence across the continent of Africa, so whatever its representatives want to tell us is something to which we should pay attention.

At the same time, though, the Americans are clearly not too happy with the fact that South Africa has failed to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sought to apportion equal blame for the war which ensued.

South Africa and the other countries in the Brics alliance are moving towards their own “new world order” in which the West’s old ways of political, military and economic influence are diminished.

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However, being the weakest of the Brics powers and still heavily reliant on the West for trade and aid, South Africa needs to be especially careful about how it handles its relationship with the US.

We would recommend less of the ideology and more pragmatism in our discussions with the Americans. The US can be a powerful friend and ally – but also a powerful enemy