Trump's US is punishing SA ‘for supporting Palestine against apartheid Israel’, says Malema

EFF leader Julius Malema says the hostility from US President Donald Trump’s administration towards South Africa does not come from “fraudulent boers spreading disinformation”, but from the US imperialist agenda.

Malema rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assertion made during a Goldman Sachs conference last week that Trump “got the wrong end of the stick” with regard to South Africa’s land reform policies.

“When Donald Trump declares, and I quote, ‘bad things’ are happening in South Africa, without evidence, we must not assume that the US is misinformed, instead we must question the real intention behind such statements.

“After Trump’s remarks, the US froze foreign aid globally under the pretext of assessing alignment with his policy outlook. For South Africa, this meant Pepfar [the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief] funding of HIV/Aids response was under threat.

“The US aggression towards South Africa is nothing more than Israel’s revenge for our moral stance in support of Palestine,” said Malema.

On Thursday, MPs debated the termination of US aid to South Africa, and the country’s response to it. The debate was sponsored by Malema.

On 26 February, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) issued notices to Pepfar-funded HIV organisations permanently terminating their funding. This followed Trump’s executive order suspending nearly all foreign development assistance pending a review.

Read more: Health workers face mass unemployment as USAid funding cut-off hits home

On Wednesday, 5 March, the US Supreme Court rejected Trump’s emergency request to freeze foreign assistance, ordering his administration to heed a lower court’s earlier order to release frozen foreign aid, according to a New York Times report.

However, it was not immediately clear whether the Supreme Court’s ruling could force the Trump administration to restore all the contracts it had cancelled, and what it means for the future of USAID.

In the House on Thursday, Malema told MPs that Trump wanted to “punish” SA for its position on Palestine.

“This government refuses to acknowledge the real issues — we are being punished for supporting Palestine against apartheid Israel — nothing else. The US does not believe there is a white genocide or land grabs in SA — these lies are useful tools to justify economic aggression and seek to weaken our moral authority to condemn Israel’s genocide,” Malema told MPs.

Read more: Middle East crisis

“Foreign aid has always been a tool for Western imperialism and control — it must end with South Africa,” said Malema, adding that SA must expand its trade relationships with China, India, Russia, Brazil and Singapore.

“The world must move forward without the US if true progress is to be achieved. We are not the puppets of the US. We will not be bullied by Donald Trump and his friends — SA remains an independent state.”

‘Trump doesn’t owe us a single cent’ 

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said South Africa’s healthcare system was the “hardest hit” by the US funding cuts.

SA has an estimated 7.8 million people living with HIV and, of these, 5.5 million are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. Ninety percent of these ARVs are funded by SA’s fiscus, while the remaining 10% are paid for by the Geneva-based organisation Global Fund.

Pepfar operated in 27 “high-burden districts” out of a total of 52 districts in the country, said Motsoaledi.

These 27 districts had 271,606 staff working on HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections programmes, he said.

Read more: SA’s HIV response will collapse without US funding — unless we act urgently

“Of the 271,606 staff, 256,452 are paid for by our own fiscus. This leaves us with 15,154 people in those districts paid for by Pepfar. These are persons of concern in this case,” said Motsoaledi.

He said Pepfar funded these people directly through a myriad of non-government organisations (NGOs), academic and health institutions.

“There are 150 NGOs who depend on this Pepfar money,” he said.

“Pepfar funds only the salaries and the operational costs of the 15,154 people in the 27 districts,” said Motsoaledi.

However, he said South Africa must now stand on its own.

“Trump doesn’t owe us any cent whatsoever and for that reason we need to stand on our own. We must not waste this crisis.

“I hope, Honourable Speaker, that we did not call this session just to bash Trump — it won’t help, believe me. We are on our own,” said Motsoaledi.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi during the debate. (Photo: Phando Jikelo / Parliament of SA)

Read more: Consequences of US HIV/Aids funding withdrawal will be dire

DA MP Karl le Roux called the “abrupt manner” in which Pepfar was stopped “unethical and wasteful”.

“It has not allowed governments, including our own, to make contingency plans and to allocate budget to cover funding shortfalls. It has, however, taught us as South Africans that, in this post-Covid era, we will need to become more self-reliant,” he said.

He urged the Department of Health to undertake a spending review.

DA MP Emma Powell echoed Le Roux’s statements, saying: “Whilst it is absolutely the prerogative of the US administration to put America first, the immediacy of the aid termination without adequate notice that allows African governments to implement contingency plans, is going to reverse decades of progress in the fight against Aids and is, in my view, deeply inhumane.

“It is difficult to imagine that one group of South Africans could be offered refugee asylum by the same administration that has now cut off life-saving care that keeps hundreds of thousands of vulnerable South Africans alive.”

DA MP Emma Powell. (Photo: Phando Jikelo / Parliament of SA)

AfriForum and Solidarity are ‘lying to the West’ 

uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party MP Wesley Douglas accused the Afrikaans interest group AfriForum and the union Solidarity of “lying to the West, portraying land reform as white genocide to the US Congress [and] pushing a false narrative to justify America’s economic aggression” towards SA.

Read more: Afrikaner group makes a sho’t right to Europe to campaign for more support against ‘SA race laws’

He said if the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) was used as a “weapon” against South Africa, the country had other options in BRICS — “a growing economic power that does not operate through threats and intimidation”.

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that South African government officials were anticipating Trump would call for an end to Agoa.

Douglas said SA wanted to partner with the US, “but not on your [US] terms; on our terms as Africans and as South Africans”.

He called on the US to “immediately restore Pepfar, or to work on a phased-out process.

“We call for urgent negotiations on Agoa, that will serve all South Africans — not just corporate elites. We call on America to respect South Africa’s sovereignty on land reform, foreign policy and economic self-determination. If the US wants a strong economic and diplomatic relationship with SA, it must be built on respect, fairness and genuine partnership — not threats, blackmail and economic warfare.”

MK party MP Wesley Douglas. (Photo: Phando Jikelo / Parliament of SA)

Echoing Douglas’ remarks on AfriForum and Solidarity’s visit to the US, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said there was “nothing unjust in our Constitution for Solidarity and AfriForum to protest for in Washington.

“They have positioned themselves against the people of South Africa.” DM