Resetting the relationship between SA and the US could culminate in sanctions against powerful local politicians, including the EFF’s Julius Malema and MK’s Jacob Zuma.
The shift in the mood in the Oval Office as US President Donald Trump asked his aides to dim the lights before showing a video to justify his assertion of genocide against white Afrikaners in SA was palpable, even across the globe as SA watched the drama unfold in real time.
Malema and Zuma were the only two high-profile politicians in those videos, both singing provocative struggle songs — the song Kill the Boer was not deemed hate speech by the equality court and appeals against the ruling failed all the way to the Constitutional Court.
Yet, in response to the sixth question posed to Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump doubled down on his narrative of white Afrikaners under siege in SA.
Ramaphosa sought to assure Trump that the politicians in the video were opposition party leaders, represented in parliament, and that their views did not represent that of the government.
Agriculture minister and DA leader John Steenhuisen too spoke out in SA’s defence, candidly admitting that farm attacks were a reality, but also emphasising that the EFF and MK were fringe groups whose views were inconsistent with that of the government of national unity (GNU). Steenhuisen went further to indicate that part of the reason the DA joined the GNU was to ensure that the two parties remain on the margins of SA politics.
Malema and Zuma represent failed ANC factions, pushing the party to the extreme of the ideological spectrum — while they are now outside the governing party fold, there are groups in the ANC that continue to support their nationalist views.
His contribution was invaluable to the meeting and reinforced Ramaphosa’s comments that the utterances of the two parties did not represent the views of the SA government. It is useful that team SA did not seek to go into the struggle-related significance of the songs sung by both leaders in the video — this would have fuelled the fire Trump had already lit with his video and news archive package of farm attacks presented to the SA delegation.
It is entirely possible that Ramaphosa and his delegation could have in this meeting, and will in ongoing engagements, convince Trump that the narrative of an Afrikaner genocide in SA is false. When this happens, the Trump administration will have to “save face”, by holding accountable those perceived to be fuelling the fire of murders through singing provocative struggle songs.
Malema and Zuma represent failed ANC factions, pushing the party to the extreme of the ideological spectrum — while they are now outside the governing party fold, there are groups in the ANC that continue to support their nationalist views.
If there are no consequences for the SA government, there may be consequences for the individual politicians Trump used in the video to illustrate his point.
Conservative lobby groups and think-tanks in the US such as the Hudson Institute have urged the Trump administration to use sanctions targeted at individuals to take action on SA’s perceived errant ways instead of punishing the country as a whole and all its 60-million citizens.
With Malema and Zuma used specifically to illustrate Trump’s point in his video on Thursday, it is likely that the pair could be the first to be targeted by such action.
At a briefing on Thursday, finance minister Enoch Godongwana spoke candidly about the impact of being targeted by the US. While he was speaking generally, on a macro level, the impact on individuals is more harrowing, stripping travel rights, heightened financial scrutiny and limited access to opportunities.
“Dealing with the Americans is a challenge because if you disagree with the Americans, life becomes difficult in dealing with everybody, because no-one wants to touch you, which is a fundamental problem,” Godongwana said.
It would tighten the net around an already isolated Malema and further complicate the networks inside and outside the ANC that continue to clandestinely support Zuma.
Malema and Zuma have mastered the art of capitalising on victimhood — action against them by the US may mark the ultimate test of their resolve to continue doing so.
• Marrian is Business Day editor-at-large.
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