The virulence of the narrative assault on South Africa on social media and from the new US administration requires us to look up from our phones and into the eyes of our compatriots.
Elon Musk, President Donald Trump’s apparatchik and the world’s richest man, was born in South Africa and for years had very little to say about this country. We are now learning just how much he loathes it. As a result, white South Africans are surprised to learn of their oppression and Afrikaners (white ones, presumably) of their potential “resettlement” as refugees. It is absurd.
Trump’s decision to cut all funding to South Africa — worth $440m last year — is a blow. We ought not to put dignity before truth and pretend otherwise. It suggests businesses and the government should prepare for the worst on the African Growth & Opportunity Act. The department of international relations & co-operation and the ambassador should do what they can to stop this, and to explain better to the world a complicated country.
But what was true about South Africa’s foreign policy before Trump remains true today, and in a sea of false dichotomy the adage that two things can be true at once is worth repeating. We ought to be nonaligned.
We should not cosy up to Iran or Russia. We ought to engage with China on our own terms, like India does. We ought to be close to the people with whom we trade.
All of that can be true when we say that Trump and his jackboot from Pretoria have slandered and mischaracterised us, and have revealed how comfortably they wallow in the shallows. South Africa is far from perfect but the country they describe is a projection of their own toxicity.
Setjhaba sa South Afrika.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.