Letter: Understanding ANC-Russia relationship - Financial Mail

The chorus of opprobrium and ridicule that has followed South Africa’s delegation to the United States to try and find a ‘diplomatic solution’ (as noted in your editorial of 12 April) to its strained relations with the West has perhaps missed the point.

The position adopted by the South African government may be influenced by Russian money and historical sentiment, but in the main it reflects an ideological commitment hardwired into the African National Congress. Its geopolitical orientation – clearly articulated in its documents, and filtered into the state’s formal stance – is one in which global ‘imperialism’ is the all-consuming threat, with events to be understood accordingly.

Thus, the American invasion of Iraq was forthrightly denounced as ‘a criminal war of aggression against the people of Iraq’ (this is still available on its website); the Russian invasion of Ukraine is seen as a defensive measure against the machinations of imperialism. Unfortunate, perhaps, but understandable, and never to be condemned – lest of course, one should appear ‘infantile’.

The position of the South African government is not in fact without principle; in a way it is deeply principled, and will not be soon abandoned, irrespective of the alienation of its trading partners or the risk of real economic damage. In fact, this applies to domestic policy too, with race-based policy, and the politicisation of the civil service regarded as beyond any discussion, their manifest costs notwithstanding.

As Brian Pottinger remarked in his book The Mbeki Legacy, there is an odd symmetry between the ANC’s stance and that of PW Botha in the 1980s: if only the world understood, all would be well. This is not the case, but furtive attempts at explanation are about all that the incumbent government can be expected to offer.

Terence Corrigan

Institute of Race Relations