President Cyril Ramaphosa, government officials and other misguided pundits are wrong. US President Donald Trump’s executive order against South Africa doesn’t violate our sovereignty. It is disappointing that so many people who should know better have exposed such heinous ignorance.
Trump’s executive order accused South Africa’s government of maligning minorities, confiscating land and siding with enemies of the US. As a part of the order, he declared that white Afrikaners would be granted refugee status in the US — a move ridiculed by many South Africans and rejected by many Afrikaners who understandably don’t want to give up their homeland.
Government officials and journalists have condemned the executive order as misinformation, with politicians going so far as accusing groups such as AfriForum of treason and accusing the US of violating South Africa’s sovereignty.
In the state of the nation address (Sona), Ramaphosa called for unity “in defence of our national interests, our sovereignty and our constitutional democracy”.
Ironically, it is the ANC and Ramaphosa’s policies that are going against all three of these things. Expropriation violates the property rights enshrined in the constitution, and the ANC has been renting out our national interests and sovereignty to the highest bidder — as seen in our covering for Russia in its war violating Ukraine’s sovereignty. And in what way does it serve South Africa’s interests to spread misinformation about Israel at the International Criminal Court of Justice ?
Yet, even if pundits try to argue that expropriation and oppression of minorities is not a human rights violation, the United States is still not violating South Africa’s sovereignty.
It is a common tactic among dictatorships and corrupt governments to hide behind sovereignty when hurting their own population or acting maliciously on the world stage. Bashar al-Assad hid behind national sovereignty when accused of using chemical weapons against civilians. Chile’s Augusto Pinochet invoked national sovereignty to ward away international scrutiny over extrajudicial killings. And Chad’s Hissène Habré dismissed international criticisms of widespread human rights abuses as interfering with internal affairs.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has come under repeated fire by many dictatorships, who have argued that prosecuting war criminals and tyrants is a violation of national sovereignty. Keep in mind that every single one of these countries signed up to the ICC — using their sovereignty to sign an agreement that they now disagree with because they’re in the crosshairs.
Ironically, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has criticised international condemnation of its invasion of Ukraine as violations of its sovereignty. This is all the while Russia directly violates Ukraine’s sovereignty by invading and occupying it.
International law stipulates widely that sovereignty does not protect a government if it is committing gross human rights violations. And sovereignty is definitely never an excuse to wage a war of conquest.
Yet, even if pundits try to argue that expropriation and oppression of minorities are not a human rights violation, the US is still not violating South Africa’s sovereignty.
There has been no attempt to directly interfere with South Africa’s territory or governance. No coup, invasion or truly malicious threats. All that the US has done is withdraw foreign aid (with HIV/Aids funding still in effect), condemn the actions of a foreign government and make a change to its own refugee policy.
These are all actions that are within the purview of the US’s sovereignty to make. They have a right to put conditions on their foreign aid, trade and relations. The fact that South Africa feels entitled to the boons of dealing with the US, without realising it needs to maintain positive relations with the superpower, shows a delusional approach to international relations.
It is South Africa’s sovereign right to make bad decisions, but then we have to live with the consequences. And our government has made repeated bad decisions.
The ANC is likely to have received a bribe to incentivise the country taking Israel to the ICJ to accuse Israel of genocide. Despite the ICJ finding Israel innocent, misinformation campaigns have piggybacked off of South Africa’s irresponsible accusations to push anti-Semitism and a pro-Hamas agenda globally. The US has made it clear that they will not tolerate enemies of Israel and allies of Iran. Yet South Africa has maintained positive relations with not just Iran but its terrorist puppets in Hamas and Hezbollah.
The ex-US ambassador accused South Africa of using the Lady R to ship munitions to Russia to use against Ukraine — a move that the US made clear it would not tolerate. The South African government investigated itself and found itself innocent — which did not convince the US. On top of that, Russian armed forces have been spotted in South Africa doing military exercises. Our hosting these exercises is tacit support for a country now engaged in a brutal war of aggression violating another country’s sovereignty.
Yes, we have a sovereign right to make these decisions. But then we have no right to complain when the US, after frequent warnings, decides that we can’t be friends any more.
Additionally, the new expropriation laws clearly allow for the violation of property rights. Combine this with rhetoric by politicians in government and in the EFF and MK Party and then look at the case study of the ANC’s close friends in Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe, and it becomes clear that the rights of minorities in South Africa are under threat.
The National Party could have easily accused the international community of violating its sovereignty by placing embargoes to end apartheid. They would have been wrong, of course. Other countries can set their own trade policies. But why then is Trump’s condemnation of South Africa any different?
They have a right to dislike our policies and use their own sovereignty to determine how they approach their relations with us. Be it cutting funding, trade, or accepting refugees.
It stinks of petty tantrum-throwing to hide behind sovereignty instead of taking responsibility for the foolishness of our own policies. And it is disastrously foolish to abandon our relations with the US. The US is our most profitable trade partner, and we rely on preferential trade through Agoa to generate about 426,000 jobs from a single agreement alone.
South Africa exported about $8.23bn to the US in 2023, maintaining a large trade surplus. We have a large trade deficit with our allies in Brics. Mantashe is wrong when he says that the US needs our minerals, but we don’t need them. We need the US. They can replace us in a heartbeat.
On top of this, the US is still the lesser evil. Even if you personally don’t like Trump, the US represents human rights, democracy and a liberal world order that is worth fighting for. This is in contrast with Russia, which represents a very real and practical imperialism, Iran that wants to plunge the Middle East into chaos and violent theocracy, and China who on top of committing a genocide against its own Uyghur population, has nothing but neocolonial, selfish ambitions in Africa.
For those not blinded by malicious ideologies, the choice should be clear. We need to backtrack on our bad decisions and win favour once again with the world superpower. Embracing any other option is not just self-destructive hubris but sees us further placing ourselves on the wrong side of history.
• Nicholas Woode-Smith is an economic historian, political analyst and author
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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