The South African government is being cautious in a bid to re-establish good relations with the US and get past the current diplomatic stalemate.
Presidential Spokesperson Vincent Magwenya briefed the media at the Union Buildings in Pretoria today.
This briefing follows the expulsion of Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s Ambassador to the US, this week.
In a foreign policy seminar, Rasool said the US President Donald Trump is leading a global white supremacist movement.
The Trump administration halted all USAID funding to donors including South Africa. South Africa is also weathering a storm of false accusations of human rights abuses against white farmers, whilst its relations with Iran and Palestine also prove to be bones of contention.
Contrary to his announcement during the State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Cyril Ramaphosa will not be sending a delegation to the US to explain South Africa’s policy on land. Presidential Spokesperson Vincent Magwenya says this is because the timing is not right given the current frosty relations between the US and South Africa.
Also, because the Trump administration is well aware that there are no human rights abuses taking place against white farmers. Despite this, Magwenya says Ramaphosa is keen to reset relations with the world’s leading economy.
“What we will do as I have done now is to continue correcting distortions where those distortions are being reported on an official level out of the US parallel to that as I said the President is leading that intensification of engagements with the Trump administration to ensure that we are able to engage at the right level and we are able to iron out whatever differences may exist but yes it is a concern that the state of the relationship is where it is and it is a focus of the President to work towards improving the state of the relationship.”
With Rasool expected to land on the country’s shores any day, Pretoria is anxious that his home coming celebrations planned by various formations may lead to further deterioration in US- South Africa relations.
Accordingly, President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for restraint.
“He is not asking them to stop welcoming Ambassador Rasool but he is saying please you know be considerate of what he is trying to manage at the moment and be considerate about what is at stake with regards to the country’s economy with respect to doing our level best to retain that strategic partnership with the US and hopefully even be able to engage in a revised trade framework.”
Magwenya is also emphatic that South Africa does not have a sinister relationship with Iran. Some in America are concerned by South Africa’s relations with Iran, with suggestions that the two countries could be collaborating to build up their nuclear capabilities. However, Magwenya says SA share historical good relations with Iran having supported liberation movements.
“By the time a democratic government took over the leadership of this country in 1994, South Africa had ceased in engaging in any form of nuclear capacity development for weapons purposes and again we will reject the assertion that we have a sinister programme with Iran that is designed to generating some form of nuclear weapons programme or capacity for South Africa we are not involved in that.”
To avoid further confrontation with the American government, Pretoria will engage the City of Johannesburg on its plans to rename Sandton Drive. This as the US Consulate is located at 1 Sandton Drive with the City of Johannesburg proposing it be renamed Leila Khaled. Khaled is a Palestinian liberation fighter and an icon amongst pro-Palestinian supporters.
“The renaming of streets remains one of our democratic society’s redress of the past injustices of colonialism and apartheid, however, we recognise the diplomatic sensitivities around the renaming of Sandton Drive particularly in relation to the USA it is for this reason that national government through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation is in talks with the City of Johannesburg, the purpose of these talks is to agree a process that will allow the national executive to manage the diplomatic tensions with the US without further inflaming the situation.”
The South Africa government is reluctant to lose out on the benefits of trade relations and aid it currently enjoys due to its good relationship with the US.
