‘Can’t serve two masters’ – Wearing two caps ‘will catch up’ with South Africa

The ANC is unable to handle international tension because it has no ideological direction, hence its tendency to want to serve two masters, which has led to clashes with the West, which is trying to pull Pretoria to its side, according to experts.

Political economy analyst Daniel Silke said the ANC found itself in an awkward position, given the changes in the global environment where the superpowers were at loggerheads, while countries that fell in-between them have to choose either side.

Consequences from Washington

Political analyst Professor Ntsikelelo Breakfast, from Nelson Mandela University, said the US resented that South Africa fraternised with Russia. South Africa should not expect to resolve the current impasse with the US while it continues to gravitate towards Russia.

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He said the recent statement by US ambassador Reuben Brigety II, where he accused South Africa of having supplied ammunition to Russia, could not be just an individual view.

“There is no way that an ambassador can make such a statement without the US foreign secretary or even the White House having no prior knowledge about what he was going to say,” he said.

“Rather, it was made deliberately to give a clear message to South Africa that if it did not stop fraternising with Russia, there will be consequences from Washington.”

Brigety had since apologised to South Africa for his statement.

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Breakfast said America resented the fact that South Africa was part of the Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa (Brics) forum, which was huge threat to US economic hegemony.

US telling SA to leave Russia

The US was trying to pressure SA to disassociate from Russia and thereby stop aligning itself with both big powers at the same time.

“This is a dicey situation that cannot be resolved through diplomatic channels only. When diplomacy fails, there is always conflict,” he said.

“Our response to these contradictions require a serious conflict resolution mechanism to mitigate all these factors, but also our actions as South Africa will be of paramount importance and this means we can’t seek a conflict resolution mechanism with America but still gravitate towards Russia.

“At some point, South Africa was regarded as a ‘superpower of Africa’ with its status held in high esteem, including being invited to participate in the G7, but that’s not the case any more and this country was not invited to the G7 in Japan this year.

“Our exclusion from G7 conveys a message that we can’t be trusted any more by the West, lest we share discussions with Russia.”

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Contextually, the ANC ideological thrust began to wobble with the fall of the Soviet Union and this was crowned at the party’s 48th national conference in 1991.

Heart in the East, head in the West

“While deep down in our heart we want to gravitate towards the East, there is an understanding within the ANC that power lies with the West. That’s why we wear two caps, but this will catch up with us because you can’t serve two masters.”

According to Breakfast, the US was using soft power to nudge South Africa to say it must back off from Russia, otherwise there will be consequences.

“The US is saying to South Africa ‘choose a side, you can’t be everything to all people’. Foreign policies are driven by national interests. Not only the US, but also Russia has got its own interests to pursue,” Breakfast said.

Silke said: “South Africa finds itself really struggling to come to terms with the division now occurring in the broader global context. Remember the ANC barely knows its economic policy on the domestic front and can barely steer any kind of its proper ideological line.

“If it can’t steer its own ideological line within SA on economic policy, it is certainly going to flounder when it comes to new international order, tensions, stresses and divisions that are occurring in the world,” Silke said.

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South Africa for many years has been moving closer to Russia and China and there have been old suspicions of the US within the ANC due to America’s failure to put pressure on the white regime to end apartheid.

Another big factor was that the US was less engaged with the developing world and neglected to promote Africa at multilateral platforms like the United Nations.

– ericn@citizen.co.za