Somebody needs to take aside Fikile Mbalula, the garrulous ANC secretary-general, and get him to pipe down. Or better still, put a muzzle on him. It’s a tall order, I know. The man can’t help himself. He’s never set eyes on a microphone that was not to his liking.
His ceaseless verbiage doesn’t always advance the argument he’s trying to make. It’s all bluster. He can be relied upon to take a bucket full of petrol to a raging fire. Some of those with an eye to the future see him as a potential presidential candidate. God help us all.
Mbalula sounded off this week about the attempts by some US lawmakers to impose sanctions on certain ANC leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa. It’s the latest in a long list of punitive measures taken by the US against this country since Donald Trump took office six months ago. For a man who has so much on his plate — Ukraine, Gaza and so on — Trump seems to have a mindlessly pernicious obsession with South Africa.
He was hardly a month in office when he wrote social media posts falsely alleging the existence of what he called a genocide against white farmers in South Africa. He followed that up with a special dispensation for white farmers to immigrate to the US. In that melee, Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, said something mildly critical of Trump and was promptly ordered to leave the US — again via social media.
This is not the time for bravado or breast-beating. The situation calls for cool heads. There are lives and livelihoods at stake
It was clearly overkill. Nothing that Rasool said could justify an expulsion. He could have been called in and given a talking-to. But then Rasool is Muslim. Trump has never hidden his visceral antipathy towards Muslims. His signature stump speech the first time he ran for office was that people from Muslim countries should be barred from entering the US. And so, in Rasool, you had a Muslim who represented this uppity upstart country that needed to be sorted out.
In a naive attempt to reason with a bully, Ramaphosa trotted off to Washington, and promptly walked into a trap. The spectacle of our president squirming as he vainly tried to dispute every naked lie thrown at him by Trump live on television will go down as probably the lowest point in South Africa’s foreign policy. It was utter humiliation. Trump has also decided he won’t be bothered to turn up for the G20 summit, Ramaphosa’s finest hour on the world stage by far.
The country is now bracing for the 30% tariff increase imposed by Trump from Friday, which will obviously devastate the economy. But Trump is not done yet. He’s now unleashed his lapdogs in Congress to go after ANC leaders, who he claims are pursuing policies that are against US interests. In response, Mbalula stood in front of the cameras this week and told the Americans, not in so many words, to do their damnedest. I guess he stands little chance of losing his job.
It's hard to overstate the threats facing the country. To be in America’s crosshairs is almost to be in mortal danger. This is therefore not the time for bravado or breast-beating. The situation calls for cool heads. There are lives and livelihoods at stake.
Trump is a different kettle of fish. The only historical equivalent one can think of is probably Idi Amin, the former Ugandan dictator — irascible, vengeful and deriving pleasure from inflicting pain on others. Amin could be dismissed as a buffoon. Trump has power.
Nobody — the rest of the world included — expected him to go this far in his tariffs onslaught. He seems to have a bone to pick with the entire planet. But South Africa’s response so far has been disjointed, almost shambolic. Who, for instance, speaks on behalf of the government on this grave matter? The callow Ronald Lamola is obviously out of his depth, and so everybody sees the need to jump in and lend a hand, thus muddying the waters further. Is Mcebisi Jonas, the man who was supposed to walk in waving the magic wand, making any headway?
The Americans are making impossible demands, most of them bogus. They don’t have a case; they have power. They aren’t interested in negotiation; they want capitulation. No country worth its salt can allow itself to be dictated to by another. South Africa certainly shouldn’t. There are obviously many areas in which most of us disagree strongly with this government, but it’s not for some foreign interloper to intercede on our behalf. We must do it ourselves. Change the government, if we must.
One of the beefs the Americans have against the ANC government is the country’s close relations with Iran, Russia and China. I’m not sure why they think it’s within their remit to make demands over that. China, for instance, is soon to be the world’s biggest economy, outstripping the US — and everyone, including the Americans, wants a piece of it. On a visit to Beijing a few years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu described his relationship with Xi Jinping as “a marriage made in heaven”. There were no angry retorts from Washington. It’s also surprising that they would have an objection to Russia, when Trump himself is a Vladimir Putin sycophant.
But the main reason for American hostility is none of the above. Maybe they’re too embarrassed to state it openly, but in taking Israel to the International Court of Justice, South Africa is not only calling the Jewish state to account for the horrendous deaths and destruction in Gaza, it’s also shaming its holier-than-thou Western supporters, who, apart from flagrantly shielding Israel from international opprobrium, have also been supplying the weapons for the slaughter in Gaza.
South Africa certainly has the right to make its case to Washington. But it doesn’t help its cause by shouting from the rooftops. Sometimes the manner in which the message is conveyed can be as important as the message itself.
So don’t pick a fight with a Goliath if you’re not a David with a sling at the ready.
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