THE United States has been called out for trying to bully South Africa after its House of Representatives tabled a resolution to oppose South Africa’s current joint military exercises with Russia and China.
Resolution 145 also called on the US to review its relationship with SA. The South African navy is presently conducting joint military drills, code-named Exercise Mosi II, with Russia and China off the coast of Durban.
This, however, has ruffled Western governments, which want Russia ostracised because of its current conflict with Ukraine. South Africa has so far refused to be forced to condemn Russia for the hostilities in Eastern Europe.
Resolution 145 ominously calls on the US President Joe Biden’s administration to provide Congress with a detailed account of economic benefits South Africa derives from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), as well as the United States-South Africa Trade and Investment Framework signed in 2012.
AGOA gives duty and quota-free access to most South African exports to the US and has been a boon for South African exporters, particularly vehicle manufacturers and fruit producers. The latest move by Washington could be a sign that it is prepared to remove South Africa from AGOA. Former Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara said the US should stop meddling in foreign polices of sovereign African states.
“We, as Africans, must determine our global partners. We reject, with the contempt that it deserves, this shameful and despicable US interference in African foreign policy and commercial diplomacy formulation. Ideally, we must unite as Africans and then seek global partners as a block of 1,3 billion people with a collective GDP of US$2,5 trillion, not as fragmented African countries.”
Bulawayo-based political analyst and veteran journalist Mr Methuseli Moyo said the US wants to impose sanctions on South Africa just like it did on Zimbabwe because it has refused to be dictated to.
“That sort of reaction from the US was expected. Hopefully, the ANC government was alive to this and is fully prepared for the backlash. The US has no tolerance for anybody who patronises their rivals in international relations. The US will do the same to those who patronise Russia, but they won’t attack militarily. Their weapon are sanctions, and they can devastate an economy. We have seen it with Iran, Iraq, Cuba and Zimbabwe.”
Other analysts say it is hypocritical for the US, which considers itself a paragon of democracy, to impose its choices on other sovereign nations.
“We have seen America taking sides with apartheid Israel despite the genocide happening in Palestine and nobody has tried to arm-twist them out of that friendship,” said South Africa-based political analyst Mr Mxolisi Ncube.
“Certainly, it cannot choose friends for South Africa. South Africa is neither a province nor a colony of America.
“America is at the forefront of ‘defending Ukraine’s sovereignty’, yet believes it can go around dictating to other countries as if it is tasked with policing the world. This shows clearly that America is nothing but an imperialist force that wants to create a unipolar world in which it will be ordering other countries around.”
The latest turn of events, he added, should be an indication to SA that the claim to democracy by Americans is nothing more than a ruse to hoodwink other countries into submitting themselves to American machinations, which are usually meant to solely benefit America.
“We have previously seen how America arm-twisted South Africa to sign AGOA,” he said. – Sunday News
