The government appears to have lost the appetite to send an envoy to the US, with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national security adviser Sydney Mufamadi saying it does not need to be in Washington DC to send a message to President Donald Trump and the world.
In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, Mufamadi was scathing of AfriForum and Solidarity over their recent behaviour, and of how Trump had given them an audience. He labelled their actions as selling South Africa's sovereignty to a foreign country.
Diplomatic relations with the US are fraught after Trump fired his latest salvo at the government this week, repeating his offer of “safe refuge” for Afrikaner farmers keen to “flee” the country.
Ramaphosa announced during his state of the nation address that he intended to dispatch envoys to several countries, including the US, to explain South Africa’s position on contentious issues such as land, education and BEE, as well as foreign policy.
When [Trump] talks to us from Washington we can hear what he is saying, likewise we can talk to him from Pretoria
— Sydney Mufamadi, national security adviser
Although Mufamadi did not say it outright, it appears the appetite to send envoys to the US has diminished.
“Unlike Mr Trump, most people in the world know where Lesotho is. When he talks to us from Washington we can hear what he is saying, likewise we can talk to him from Pretoria. We have an embassy and an ambassador in America. We don't need an additional pulpit in Washington to talk to him and the people of America,” said Mufamadi.
He said the government was justified in land redress given the country’s past, and it was concerning that AfriForum and Solidarity went to Washington to try to block it.
“We come from a bitterly divided past, a South Africa in which the will of the majority counted for nothing. We succeeded after years of hostilities and difficult struggles during which some paid the ultimate price. When we entered the new South Africa we agreed that we were putting the hostilities where they belong — in the past.
“It is a matter of serious concern that some among us have decided ukudlala nge geja kuziliwe [to stoke fires]. They are linking up with foreign interests, inviting them to punish their own country for doing what a country with its particular history must naturally do.”
Mufamadi said AfriForum and Solidarity were behaving as though they believed the apartheid regime ended too soon.
Their actions risked taking the country back to conflict along racial lines.
“These people ... are showing a distaste for our government's commitment to bring about equity of treatment of all of the citizens of our country,” said Mufamadi.
“They begrudge 1994 like Ian Smith, who thought that freedom in Rhodesia 'will not come in my lifetime'. Like him, they think that 1994 came too soon. So they are soliciting help to reverse the hands of time. The risk they pose for the country is to reawaken the demon of interracial hostilities.”
They were doing this, he said, at a time when the country needed to work together to uphold its sovereignty. Instead, they were “trying to recreate a South Africa which was characterised by the conflict of wills — where the will of the minority was used to trump the will of the majority”.
AfriForum and Solidarity had “no business” feeling threatened by majority rule as the country’s constitutional conception of majority covered all its citizens, including the Afrikaners.
Asked whether he had a message he wanted to get across to Trump, Mufamai said the US leader should know that the country was well equipped to deal with its own issues.
“The people of South Africa are perfectly capable of discussing complex issues among themselves and finding solutions thereto. I know that the people of the United States contributed to the work of the anti-apartheid movement, which helped to get us to the South Africa of the majority's dream.
“Mr Trump must not create an impression that he was elected to encourage mischief makers. The people who are coming to him bearing tales are our citizens and they must be encouraged to take advantage of the channels which our democratic dispensation has availed. For South Africans to try to gang up with foreign interests against their own is tantamount to mortgaging our sovereignty.”
Asked whether he believes AfriForum and Solidarity should be charged with treason, Mufamadi said: “I am not sure that I want to take matters of political discourse to court.
“Taking a shortcut like that is not necessarily good nation building material.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.