Stop alienating your friends, IRR urges government
26 February 2023
South Africa must take immediate steps to repair its relationship with the United States (US) in the wake of the government’s disastrous decision to hold military exercises with the Chinese and Russian navies, says the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).
Despite the official policy of the South African government being one of neutrality in the growing international stand-off between the authoritarian Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the one hand, and “Western” liberal democracies on the other, the ANC government has shifted towards a more openly anti-Western posture, which now threatens South Africa’s relations with the US.
Over the past year, the ANC has:
continued a pattern of determinedly anti-Western behavior in the United Nations, where it is more likely to vote alongside North Korea than the world’s major democracies;
held military exercises with the Russian and Chinese navy on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even as the Russian navy is being used to fire cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities, while at the same time cancelling planned exercises with the United States military;
consented to the ANC Youth League sending “observers” to oversee the sham referenda held in territory occupied by Russia to legitimise its annexation of Ukrainian territory, referenda which the ANCYL described as “(a) beautiful, wonderful process”; and