EDITORIAL | Trump’s obsession with SA renders him impervious to reason

The announcement by US President Donald Trump that he would not invite South Africa to next year’s G20 summit in the US, coming on top of his boycott of last week’s G20 gathering in Johannesburg, is a mark of a Pretoria-Washington relationship that has reached a new nadir.

Seizing on summit outcomes that were not to his liking, Trump resumed his unjustified calumny against South Africa by claiming that our country was “not worthy of membership anywhere”. This was consistent with his long-running campaign of spreading untruths about South Africa, including alleged genocide being perpetrated against white Afrikaner farmers.

These sentiments are clearly not shared by the G20 leaders who fully participated in the gathering, and who rebuffed his attempts to remotely control summit discussions and outcomes.

President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a robust response, pointing out that South Africa “is a sovereign constitutional democratic country” which “does not appreciate insults from another country”.

The response was unsurprising, given the restraint hitherto shown by Pretoria in the face of Trump’s persistent, unjustified, provocation. In fact, our government’s understandable choice to avoid escalation seems simply to have earned it more lies and more boorishness from Trump. Even Ramaphosa’s White House visit to appease the US president, to give him first-hand information, was turned into a stage for Trump to try to embarrass not only Ramaphosa but South Africa itself.

It has become clear in the process that Trump’s obsession with undermining South Africa has rendered him impervious to reason or facts. His motives may be racial or aimed at intimidating our country into dropping the International Court of Justice case against Israel.

It has become clear in the process that Trump’s obsession with undermining South Africa has rendered him impervious to reason or facts. His motives may be racial or aimed at intimidating our country into dropping the International Court of Justice case against Israel. And probably, he is driven by a broader quest to impose on the world a unipolar order in which the US rules the roost, with him as king.

It remains to be seen whether Trump will see through his threat to exclude South Africa from next year’s summit, and what position will be taken by other members of the group, who were in attendance in Johannesburg, and who have no dispute with South Africa.

Whatever we may think of Trump, the reality is that, as argued elsewhere in our opinions section, we have a deep-rooted economic relationship with the US which precedes the Trump presidency, as shown by the participation of American businesses in the G20 processes. Which means there is a lot at stake for the country, its businesses and workers.

In an integrated world economy, no country can thrive in isolation, and it is in SA’s interests to continue efforts to restore a more cordial and co-operative relationship with the US.

There is also scope for co-operation on many challenges facing the world today, including peacekeeping, research and scientific advancement, as well as, dare we say, fighting inequality.

As is the case with other countries, co-operation with the US does not have to be predicated on seeing eye to eye on all issues.

It also should not entail jettisoning our sovereignty or becoming another country’s vassal. Unlike what Trump prefers, a peaceful and thriving world can only be maintained when there is equality and respect among nations, be they the so-called small or big ones.

In the interim, our country has to move with greater speed to reduce dependency on outside aid to deal with its problems, such as fighting HIV/Aids and building an effective health care system. The government, together with its economic partners in business and labour, must redouble efforts to end our economic stagnation, which negatively affects the lives of millions.

Given not just the bad relations with Trump, but a rapidly changing geopolitical world, we must end the relegation of our diplomatic service, which has left us woefully exposed globally, where our voice as a country needs to be heard more, not less, to advance our economic and other interests.