The Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) says the unipolar world order created after the end of World War 2 in 1945 is dead, and US President Donald Trump is just helping advance that cause.
“We are moving from a unipolar world order towards as a multipolar world order in which it will become difficult for any one world power to dictate a world new order. SA, in its efforts to shape a non-aligned world order, is facing resistance as result of this,” IGD executive director Philani Mthembu said in a briefing to parliament on Wednesday.
The organisation is an independent, SA-based foreign policy think-tank.
The discussion came just hours before President Cyril Ramaphosa’s scheduled meeting with US President Donald Trump.
The US is among SA’s biggest trading partners and more than 600 US businesses operate in SA. Relations between the two countries have been strained with the US trying to dictate SA’s foreign policy, and relations have worsened with the US perpetuating a false narrative about a white genocide in SA.
But with the US remaining one of SA’s largest trading partners and a key player in global finance, Ramaphosa’s visit carries both symbolic weight and potential policy implications.
Mthembu argues that Trump’s stance may have lasting implications. “What is taking place in the US should not be seen as a temporary anomaly. Trump is not a passing figure but we see there are more fundamental changes in the US that will outlive the second Trump administration.
“We are seeing a deliberate effort to destroy — it’s not as chaotic as it looks. The Make America Great Again (Maga) movement shares a common agenda against liberalism and democracy. It is a pushback against the conventional system,” Mthembu added.
Maga was a political slogan popularised by Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. The Maga movement believes the US has lost its former greatness due to foreign influence and seeks to restore it through “America first” policies.
Mthembu said the Ramaphosa administration was just facing a cruder version of what former President Nelson Mandela had to deal with in SA’s diplomatic relations with the US, back then.
“The US did not always support the struggle against apartheid and since the dawn of democracy, SA has consistently tried to reform the global multilateral system. The US wants to to stomp out any resistance to its dominance of the new global world order. It has always been a push and pull between Pretoria and Washington, for decades now.
“We have never shared a relationship of mutual trust. Now the US is trying to review its own multilateral relations in its favour even more. Mandela back then said while we appreciate the relationship with the US, it is not it is not proper for the US to dictate SA’s foreign policy,” Mthembu said.
Going into the meeting with Trump, Ramaphosa said he would safeguard SA’s independence, from all countries, not just the US.
“We’re a sovereign country [and] a very proud nation. We preserve our sovereignty and will always do what’s best for SA,”
Ramaphosa told reporters that any potential concessions would be weighed up carefully against national policy and economic transformation goals. He added that SA wanted to engage with the US as it engaged with all other countries,
“We want to come out of the US with a really good trade deal and investment promotion ... we want to strengthen those relations and consolidate good relations between our two countries,” Ramaphosa said.
With Thando Maeko
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