Pandor has put SA at further financial and diplomatic risk

By paving the way for Vlad the Invader to attend the Brics summit here in August, Minister Naledi Pandor has put South Africa at further financial and diplomatic risk.

She gazetted immunity for Brics attendees, including Russian president Vladimir Putin, hours after a warning by the Reserve Bank of dire consequences should SA be censured for its stance on the invasion of Ukraine.

In a financial stability review, the bank said secondary or indirect sanctions might be imposed, resulting in a sudden halt to capital inflows and increased outflows. SA’s financial system would be unable to function if the ability to make international payments in dollars was impeded.

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Last week, business leaders warned President Cyril Ramaphosa that SA’s position on Russia’s invasion could do untold damage to SA’s battered economy. According to weekend reports, more business leaders are to meet him soon on the same issue.

Ramaphosa and colleagues are not listening. They are blind to hardships suffered by ordinary South Africans, while ministers and ANC bosses live in luxury. Russia funds the ANC, as explained previously.

We have come a long way since 2017, when then ANC minister of water and sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane said: “Let the rand fall, we will pick it up”. The rand has since weakened. From less than R14 to the US dollar, it’s now hovering just below R20. No deployed cadre has tried to pick it up. They keep bashing it down with stupid statements.

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There is a delusion that by siding with Russia, under the pretence of non-alignment, SA will reap some benefit. In terms of trade, this is nonsense, even as ANC coffers fill up.

The US, with whom we do far more trade than with Russia, remains the world’s strongest nation economically and militarily. As CNN’s Fareed Zakaria notes in the Washington Post, recent cliff-hanger negotiations over America’s debt happened “against a backdrop of astonishing strength”.

US “…unemployment is stunningly low. Gross domestic product (GDP) has grown at three times the average pace as under president Trump, real incomes are rising, manufacturing is booming and inflation has eased for 10 straight months. Even the budget deficit …has dropped to 5.5% of GDP.”

The US “remains the world’s leader in business, especially in cutting-edge technology”, including artificial intelligence.

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“Despite the recent banking crisis, the biggest US banks are now more dominant than they have ever been worldwide.

“And despite many challenges and efforts to unseat it, the dollar remains the global reserve currency … there is no denying that the dollar, for now, reigns supreme.”

Russia’s economy, by GDP, is less than one 10th the size of America’s. And our trade with Russia is dwarfed by that with the US and its allies.

The rand’s recent slide began when US ambassador Reuben Brigety said arms had been loaded on a Russian ship at Simon’s Town. He has not retracted and SA’s response has been a feeble shambles of denial.

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In the game of Russian roulette, if you spin the revolver cylinder often enough and keep pulling the trigger, a lethal shot is inevitable. How many spins do we have left?