SA’s foreign policy will not change overnight but the government should use “tactical finesse” to navigate the changing global environment, deputy minister of international relations Alvin Botes said.
“Foreign policy is a principled position. It doesn’t need change overnight but what we require is tactical finesse. The next couple of years will demonstrate whether SA has enough tactical finesse,” Botes said.
The country demonstrated tactical finesse when President Vladimir Putin was served with an International Criminal Court indictment, he said.
In the face of the actions and threats from the Trump administration, the DA, the second-largest member of the coalition government, has called for the overhaul of SA’s foreign policy to include inputs from all members of the government of national unity (GNU).
Botes said one of the “greatest dilemmas” that the GNU faced foreign policy wise was the “particular proximity” of some coalition partners to organisations such as AfriForum and Solidarity, movements with close ties to the US government.
President Cyril Ramaphosa previously cited the two lobby groups as having played a part in the spreading of misinformation about SA to US authorities, partly leading to President Donald Trump’s actions against this country.
Though rejecting Trump’s call for white Afrikaners to resettle in the US, AfriForum has called on the US government to impose sanctions against individual ANC leaders for the country’s land reform policies.
“So within the broader cabinet, there’s no lack of clarity [about] foreign policy issues and there has not been one issue in terms of foreign policy that has been raised within the government clusters,” Botes said on Monday during a joint symposium hosted by the department of international relations & co-operation and the SA Institute of International Affairs.
“Why do they [AfriForum and Solidarity] perpetuate a lie that would have an adverse effect on their own constituency in SA?”
Botes said that SA could lose its preferential access to US markets through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) and this will have adverse effects on commercial farmers and workers on those farms that have benefited from the trade agreement.
SA authorities have maintained that they will engage the US through diplomatic channels in the face of escalating tension between the two countries.
However, this has been increasingly difficult since the Trump administration took over in January. Trump’s government has taken an antagonistic stance against SA and is yet to make top appointments in the department of state’s bureau of African affairs, a dedicated unit in the US secretary of state’s office.
Former ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool cited resistance from the Trump administration to SA’s nonaligned foreign policy as one of the reasons behind him being expelled from that country after he was declared persona non grata.
Despite the animosity, Botes said the US remained a strategic partner to SA and that the country should work hard to maintain relations.
The department of international relations & co-operation confirmed on Monday in a separate statement that Rasool had met minister Ronald Lamola soon after his return to SA on Sunday.
He is expected to meet Ramaphosa and report on his work in the US.
“Following the meeting, a formal report will be submitted to the president for his consideration. Pending this, the ministry or department will not engage in public engagements on the matter,” the department said in a statement.
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