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South Africa

New US Bill calls on the Biden administration to review America’s relations with SA

The bill would also require the Administration to examine whether SA is undermining US security and foreign policy interests. 
New US Bill calls on the Biden administration to review America’s relations with SA

Legislation has been introduced in the US House of Representatives which would require the US Administration to conduct a full review of US relations with South Africa because Pretoria is supposedly siding with America’s adversaries, Hamas. Russia and China. 

(The legislative action was first reported on by Mail & Guardian -Ed)

If passed, the “U.S.- South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act” would also require the Administration to report to Congress “explicitly stating whether South Africa has engaged in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests.”

Republican John James and Democrat Jared Moscowitz introduced the bill on Wednesday. The bill says that in contrast to its stated non-alignment, the ANC government has been siding with “malign actors”,  building military and political ties with Russia and China and supporting Hamas , designated by the US as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a known proxy of Iran. 

These ties undermine America’s national security and foreign policy interests and “threaten our way of life,” the bill says.

The bill said “ it is in the national security interest of the United States to deter strategic political and security cooperation and information sharing with the PRC and the Russian Federation, particularly any form of cooperation that may aid or abet Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine or its international standing or influence.”

The document is not quite clear about how US security and foreign policy interests have been undermined, though it does suggest that America’s relations with SA are distracting it from seeking its own energy security. 

The bill said that no later than 30 days after enactment of the bill – if it passed by both the House and the Senate – the President should deliver to Congress and publicly release  “an unclassified determination explicitly stating whether South Africa has engaged in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests.”

This wording reflects the wording of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) which provides preferential access to the US market for the exports of eligible African countries, including South Africa.

A country can be deemed ineligible if it undermines US national security or foreign policy interests. Democratic Party Senator Chris Coons has introduced a bill that would require the Administration to hold an “out of cycle” review this year on whether South Africa should remain an Agoa beneficiary.

The new bill introduced this week would also require the President and his ministers, agencies and officials to conduct a comprehensive review of the bilateral relationship between the US and SA and to submit a report on its findings to Congress no later than 120 days after the enactment of the bill. 

The bill lists many actions and statements by SA which it says show the ANC government is siding with Hamas, Russia and China.

It said after Hamas’ “unprovoked and unprecedented horrendous attack on Israel on October 7, 2023” when it killed and kidnapped hundreds of Israelis, members of the South African Government and leaders of the ANC had delivered “a variety of antisemitic and anti-Israel-related statements and actions.”

These included the statement of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation on the day of the attack, which urged Israel’s restraint in response to the attack and implicitly blamed Israel for provoking the attack through “continued illegal occupation of Palestine land, continued settlement expansion, desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque and Christian holy sites, and ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people.” 

As further evidence of the ANC government’s alleged siding with Hamas, the bill cites International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor’s phone call with Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh on 17 October 17; her visit to Iran—“which is actively funding Hamas” -  on 22 October 2023, to meet President Ebrahim Raisi ; Pandor’s call on 7 November, 2023 for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to charge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with war crimes;  Pretoria’s request to the ICC  on 17 November 2023, to investigates war crimes in Palestinian territories; and SA’s “politically motivated” charge of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice on 29 December 2023.

As evidence of Pretoria’s “robust relationship” with Russia, the bill cites Pretoria;  allowing the United States-sanctioned Russian cargo ship, the Lady R, to dock and transfer arms at Simons Town naval base in December 2022;  hosting offshore naval exercises with Russia and China in February 2023; reneging on its initial call for Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine;  and  “dispatching multiple high-level official delegations to Russia to further political, intelligence, and military cooperation.”

And the bill said that the SA government and ANC were undermining SA’s democratic constitutional system of governance,  through ongoing cooperation with China.

This included recruiting former United States and NATO fighter pilots to train Chinese military pilots at the Test Flying Academy of South Africa; hosting six Chinese government backed Confucius Institutes which it said were an important part of the Chinese Community Party’s (CCP) external propaganda structure; and participation in a political training school opened in Tanzania funded by the Chinese Communist Party “where it trains political members of the ruling liberation movements in six Southern African countries.” 

It also cited the acceptance in SA’s media and technology sectors of  Chinese state linked firms that the United States has restricted due to threats it believes they pose to national security, including Huawei Technologies, ZTE and Hikvision. 

The bill said these companies “place South African sovereignty at risk and facilitate the CCP’s export of its model of digitally aided authoritarian governance underpinned by cyber controls, social monitoring, propaganda, and surveillance.”

The bill also cited the ANC government’s “substantially mismanaging” state resources and its often ineffective delivery of public services, “threatening the South African people and the South African economy…”

It mentions the energy crisis, the railway crisis- hindering the export of minerals- and the current cholera outbreak, which it said was the worst in 15 years.  This was in part due to the government’s failure to deliver clean water to households.

The bill also cited “rampant state capture” during the Zuma years which it said continued to negatively impact economic development  and living standards.

It is by no means clear that this bill would pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate to become law or even that the House would vote on it. Republicans, who are generally  more hostile to South Africa control the House but Democrats control the Senate and would be more likely to reject the bill to avoid embarrassing and tying the hands of the Biden administration.

The bill nonetheless gives an indication of the trend of thinking about SA in Congress. DM

Comments (4)

ditshitso@gmail.com May 6, 2024, 08:26 AM

America under Bush administration manipulated and forced war onto Iraq. To date Bush hasn't been held accountable for what he did... South Africa is a democratic country and needs to exercise its democracy by expressing itself accordingly. It cannot be independent with Americas short strings that extend when it suits them!!!! America had no business breaking the ties between Russia and Ukraine. It fails to come together in its own neighborhood. How in the name of all the Gods at once do they dictate what happens in other countries... South Africans voting ANC into power have no choice but vote for the devil they know than to subject themselves to people who refuse to change and understand what the apartheid regime did to us mentally!!! America is no land of milk and honey. The segregation and governance speaks volumes. They have no right dictating relations of other countries when they have failed to sort their own house out. RACISM in that country cannot be tolerated and yet they want to dictate terms in a country that is torn apart by racial segregation that continues but ignored.

khasilucas85 Feb 15, 2024, 03:52 AM

Pfff

markgcfriedman Feb 13, 2024, 01:32 AM

AGOA is the thin edge of the wedge. SA global trade is around $18b out of global trade of around $25 trillion, or about 0.0007% of trade movement in goods and services. It is infinitesimal and barely blips on the radar. SA also has trade agreements with the EU as well as several other bilateral agreements with European countries and others. These will be under pressure too noting Germany has come down against SA at the ICJ and is deeply concerned at the way the automotive industries are being hammered through corruption, self enrichment, inefficiency and loss of productivity. They can just as easily shift to Mexico or Eastern European countries who are still cheaper that the main EU players. The JSE is a shadow of its former self (Microsoft is bigger than the entire JSE cap combined and from being in the top 10 internationally is now out of the top 20) As ever the law of unintended consequences will see to it that SA's arrogant "exceptionalism" and profoundly naive grip of political expedience will see the country ruined before it can rebound, and all in the name of - lets face it - supporting terror. (They even had pro Hamas posters up at the Athlone game yesterday while Cyril and Pandor chanted "from the river to the sea" etc... a call for genocide which could in fact scupper the ICJ case when the next stage comes around!!) It should never have reached this stage and now the leaks are about to spring everywhere. Get them out - they are destroying peoples' futures

Noelsoyizwaphi@gmail.com Feb 12, 2024, 09:31 PM

Yes, as the manager of world's debt, the USA do make alot of money from that and it does use its currency as a levers of power and sometimes as a weapon against perceived enemies. This cannot go on unchallenged indefinitely. With regards to the Israeli-Palestinian question, that problem cannot be left unattended in perpetuity and it will not resolve itself. If super powers are not attending to it, liberation/ terrorist organisations like Hamas will keep reminding the world through events like the October 7 and genocidal reactions by affected countries will persist. Are we in the stone age? Back home, while governing party is clearly not doing a freat job in running the affairs of this country, it is equally sad that those in the opposition benches lack the necessary talent and leadership to take advantage of what is offered by the ANC, through its blunders, and lead South Africa out of the mess caused by the ANC. When fighting the apartheid system, we were not united as one country. Its like we were two countries in one. But our situation right now, calls for unity, patriotism. Remember when the ship sinks, no matter how precious some of the cargo in it might be, it sinks with everything inside. People must stop behaving as though they have another country they call home. However, with the right leadership, membership of the political party that will save this country will be as colourful as the followers of the national rugby team during a world cup tournament. Naturally, majority of the voters, regardless of their historical backgrounds, will want to identify with that party and that's what leadership can do. It makes you see and believe only in the future and not where you come from. Sadly, the country lacks that, from right across the board. Some may agree that we have seen a glimpse of such leadership in Mandela, Tutu, De Klerk and others, which gave hope to the majority of South Africans and the world, that things can be better if we work together.