SA's ties with Iran — and the high price of the ANC’s revolutionary nostalgia

15 Mar 2025

The African National Congress’ friendship with Tehran is becoming the main bugbear in US relations with South Africa.

Back in 2022 and 2023, after Russia invaded Ukraine and Pretoria refused to condemn Moscow, South Africa’s friendly relations with Russia were the most toxic in the eyes of the West, especially the United States (US).

But US President Donald Trump has turned the world on its head by blaming Ukraine for allowing itself to be invaded, a position that aligns with Russia’s narrative about the war. Now South Africa’s ties with Iran are emerging as the most damaging to its relations with the US.

Trump’s hostility to South Africa became official in an executive order terminating all US aid to the country, partly because of its new Expropriation Act, but also because of South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Israel, and its “[reinvigorated] relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements”.

Pretoria has been trying to avoid a complete breakdown in its relationship with the US, largely to protect its lucrative duty-free access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. The recent aid cuts also pose a significant risk to South Africa, especially its already ailing health sector.

Despite this, the African National Congress (ANC) – the major partner in South Africa’s government of national unity – is actively promoting its good relations with Iran.

Last week Nomvula Mokonyane, the ANC’s Deputy Secretary-General, and Blade Nzimande, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, both separately hosted Iranian Ambassador to South Africa, Mansour Shakib Mehr, describing their relationship with Tehran as “warm and cordial”.

Grist to the mill

This undoubtedly added grist to the mills of South Africa’s many enemies in the US, who have had Pretoria’s relations with Iran in their sights for some time. The US embassy in Pretoria warned South Africa about possible sanctions when two Iranian warships docked in Cape Town in early 2023.

South Africa’s relations with Iran came under scrutiny after the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, which Iran openly supports. On 22 October, South Africa’s then foreign minister Naledi Pandor visited Tehran and met then president Ebrahim Raisi. At the time, foreign affairs officials told ISS Today she had among other things, delivered an invitation from Ramaphosa to visit South Africa, but that the visit had been called off.

And then in January 2024, the ANC – which had been flirting with insolvency for years – announced it had managed to stabilise its finances without explaining how. Just days earlier, South Africa had charged Israel with genocide in Gaza before the ICJ. The timing raised suspicions, and a few commentators opined that Iran had paid off the ANC for taking Israel to court.

The ANC and government denied this. A Daily Maverick fact check found no evidence of a payoff, but concluded that the charges could not be proven or disproven, largely because the ANC accounts were not public.

The ANC also aroused suspicion by hosting Hamas leaders for a Palestinian solidarity convention in South Africa shortly after the group attacked Israel. The ANC often seems to invite suspicion about its dealings with Iran and Hamas.

Nuclear reactor

Statements by top ANC executive and Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe – just days after Trump cut aid to South Africa this year – are a good example. He said Iran and Russia were both welcome to bid for South Africa’s planned contract to build a nuclear reactor to add 2,500 megawatts to the electricity grid.

Yet, as Isabel Bosman, a Researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), told ISS Today, Iran has no known capacity or track record of building nuclear power stations abroad. She said Iran had required Russian assistance even to build its own nuclear power station.

The fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency warned this month that Tehran is moving closer to being able to build nuclear weapons, has not helped South Africa’s cause. Even though, as Bosman says, there’s no evidence of any nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

Chrispin Phiri, Spokesperson for South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola, told ISS Today: “Regarding the baseless allegations of nuclear collaboration, we resolutely uphold the principle that nuclear weapons have no legitimate place in our shared future. South Africa remains unwavering in its dedication to international initiatives designed to curtail the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.”

It appears that the ANC is just being true to an old struggle-era ally, as it does with Cuba, Venezuela and Russia. (Even if, as Ukraine points out, the ANC’s struggle ally was the USSR, not Russia, and Ukraine was part of the USSR.)

South Africa and Iran’s official relationship goes back to the dawn of democracy when a Joint Commission of Cooperation was formed in 1995, and has met regularly ever since.

Old friends

But as Steve Gruzd, Head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme at SAIIA notes, the ANC’s relationship with Iran is even older than that and “when the ANC makes a friend, it’s almost a friend for life and all sins are forgiven thereafter…” He told ISS Today the ANC had admired Iran since the 1979 revolution, and that it fell into the category of ANC friends that “are not popular in the West”.

Gruzd notes that South Africa has defended Iran at the United Nations for its right to run a nuclear programme for peaceful purposes. He also said that the South African cellphone provider MTN is heavily invested in Iran, with a 49% share in one of the main cellphone companies.

Yet it’s clear that national economic interests do not drive the relationship as total trade between the two countries barely reached R300-million in 2023.

It is curious that the ANC is so friendly with Hamas’ main sponsor and Hamas itself, which is dedicated to a one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Officially, the ANC still supports a two-state solution and is closer to the Palestine Liberation Organisation – the co-architect of the two-state solution – than to Hamas.

Phiri observes that, “The narrative framing South Africa’s relationship with Iran echoes the now-discarded narrative towards Russia. Take for example [US] Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio’s statement on Russia relations – it refers to ‘a commitment to restore a respectful and constructive interstate dialogue with Russia’.”

Phiri adds that “As a sovereign state, South Africa unequivocally reserves the right to engage in dialogue founded on mutual respect and constructive intent with any nation, in alignment with its principles and national interests.”

That is of course true. It is also true that Trump is grossly overreacting to South Africa’s actions and positions. But countries should not be surprised if they are judged by the company they keep. Iran sponsors Hamas and Hezbollah to attack Israel, supplies drones to Russia to attack Ukraine and appears to be close to building nuclear weapons.

As with other old ANC chums such as Russia, one has to ask whether the rest of South Africa is paying too high a price for the ANC’s revolutionary nostalgia. DM

First published by ISS Today

Peter Fabricius is an ISS consultant.

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South Africa

Grist to the mill

Nuclear reactor

Old friends