Stop alienating your friends, IRR urges government

South Africa must take immediate steps to repair its relationship with the United States (US) in the wake of the government’s disastrous decision to hold military exercises with the Chinese and Russian navies, says the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).

Despite the official policy of the South African government being one of neutrality in the growing international stand-off between the authoritarian Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the one hand, and “Western” liberal democracies on the other, the ANC government has shifted towards a more openly anti-Western posture, which now threatens South Africa’s relations with the US.

Over the past year, the ANC has:

• continued a pattern of determinedly anti-Western behavior in the United Nations, where it is more likely to vote alongside North Korea than the world’s major democracies;
• held military exercises with the Russian and Chinese navy on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even as the Russian navy is being used to fire cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities, while at the same time cancelling planned exercises with the United States military;
• consented to the ANC Youth League sending “observers” to oversee the sham referenda held in territory occupied by Russia to legitimise its annexation of Ukrainian territory, referenda which the ANCYL described as “(a) beautiful, wonderful process”; and
• condemned the raft of EU sanctions against Russia as “draconian".

Despite some initial criticism of Russia at the start of the invasion, the ANC government has since ventured little in the way of criticism of Russia or of China’s human rights record.

This behaviour has not gone unnoticed in the US, where a group of members of the House of Representatives have drawn up Resolution 145 calling on the Biden administration to immediately review its bilateral relations with South Africa, including South Africa’s inclusion in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the 2012 US-SA Trade and Investment Framework that have proved beneficial to South Africa’s economy.

The US and its allies in Europe and the United Kingdom are South Africa’s largest trading partners, jointly surpassing the trade with SA’s largest individual trade partner, China, in both imports and exports.

The SA government’s violation of its own stated neutrality not only threatens the country’s economic prospects, but runs counter to the values enshrined in the Constitution and the country’s interest. SA’s important economic ties do not need to be blind to the very important differences between our commitments to individual rights and the authoritarian values of the Chinese state. These are not differences limited to the elite of our country. As research by the Social Research Foundation has found, South Africans would much rather live in the United Kingdom and United States than in Cuba or Russia.

The strengthening of relations with Russia and China seems to be driven by nothing more than the ANC government’s desire to purse an outdated, Cold-War-era anti-Western agenda even at the expense of the country’s position in global affairs.

Says IRR analyst Nicholas Lorimer: “The ANC government has prioritised its own pet ideological projects at the expense of ordinary South Africans, who have little desire to be drawn into a major geo-political conflict and have much to lose if the government sides with authoritarian regimes.”

South Africa should immediately cease antagonising the US and its major trading partners in Europe. It should return to its stated policy of neutrality, lest the country finds itself involved in a global power struggle it is not equipped to handle and has nothing to gain from.

Here is the text of Resolution 145: 

IV

118TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. RES. 145

Opposing the Republic of South Africa’s hosting of military exercises with

the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation, and calling

on the Biden administration to conduct a thorough review of the United

States-South Africa relationship.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

Mr. JAMES (for himself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. KEAN of New Jersey,

Mr. MILLS, Mr. BAIRD, and Mrs. KIM of California) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

RESOLUTION

Opposing the Republic of South Africa’s hosting of military

exercises with the People’s Republic of China and the

Russian Federation, and calling on the Biden administration to conduct a thorough review of the United StatesSouth Africa relationship.

Whereas the United States and the Republic of South Africa

have enjoyed strong bilateral relations since 1994;

Whereas the holding of elections with universal suffrage in

1994 marked the effective ending of apartheid in South

Africa, the codified, State-enforced system of racial segregation and socioeconomic discrimination;

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• HRES 145 IH

Whereas South Africa is the United States largest trade partner in Africa, with $21,000,000,000 of 2-way goods trade

in 2021, and in 2012, the countries signed a Trade and

Investment Framework Agreement facilitating 2-way

trade;

Whereas the United States is the largest source of foreign direct investment in South Africa, valued at over

$7,500,000,000 in 2021, and approximately 600 American businesses operate in South Africa;

Whereas South Africa’s media landscape has proven resilient

to the influence of media entities controlled by the People’s Republic of China (PRC);

Whereas South Africa has benefitted from the U.S. Africa

Contingency Operations Training and Assistance program since 2006;

Whereas the United States and South African militaries have

historically undertaken joint military exercises and enjoyed good relations, including South Africa hosting

American troops for Exercise ‘‘Shared Accord’’ in 2022,

the fourth time they have hosted this exercise since 2011,

through historic Department of Defense participation in

South Africa’s biennial African Aerospace Defense Exhibition, and through the periodic convening of the bilateral

U.S.-South Africa Defense Committee;

Whereas South Africa declined to participate in the planned

‘‘Cutlass Express’’ military exercises with the United

States in 2023;

Whereas South Africa often voted in alignment with the PRC

within the United Nations General Assembly in 2022, especially in relation to votes condemning Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine;

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• HRES 145 IH

Whereas South Africa reneged on its initial call for the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw its forces from

Ukraine and has actively sought improved relations with

Moscow in the last year;

Whereas South Africa’s ruling party, the African National

Congress (ANC) and the Chinese Communist Party

(CCP) engage in consistent interparty cooperation in

spite of South Africa’s Constitution being opposed to the

CCP’s routine suppression of free expression and individual rights;

Whereas the ‘‘United Front’’ work of the CCP has established at least 3 ‘‘overseas police stations’’ in South Africa, and these police stations, both in South Africa and

in many other countries, are reportedly being used to

track and harass PRC dissidents;

Whereas South Africa hosts 6 Confucius Institutes, the most

of any country in Africa, and cooperates with the PRC

under the CCP’s Belt and Road Initiative;

Whereas, in 2020, South Africa and the PRC established a

joint bilateral ‘‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’’,

and maintain numerous prior and subsequent agreements, memorandums of understanding, and similar accords;

Whereas South Africa is the PRC’s largest trading partner

in Africa, with total trade valued at $54,000,000,000 in

2021, and has accepted $5,000,000,000 in PRC-provided

power and transportation sector loans since 2015;

Whereas South Africa is scheduled to hold the 15th leaders’

meeting of the informal Brazil, Russia, India, China

grouping (BRICS) in August 2023;

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• HRES 145 IH

Whereas the increased Chinese presence in South Africa’s

technology sector has raised concerns that the ANC may

be trying to copy the PRC’s model of digitally aided authoritarian governance underpinned by cyber controls, social monitoring, and surveillance;

Whereas Vumacam, a South African company building a nationwide CCTV network, has partnered with Chinese

company Hikvision for the cameras’ hardware, and

Telkom, South Africa’s partially State-owned telecoms

operator, launched its 5G network throughout the country in October 2022 using technology from Huawei Technologies;

Whereas the ANC has proved incapable of providing electricity to the South African people, through its chronic

mismanagement of the State-owned power company

Eskom, and on February 9, 2023, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster over the worsening, multiyear power crisis;

Whereas South Africa will host joint maritime exercises, entitled ‘‘Operation Mosi II’’, jointly with the PRC and Russia, between February 17 and 24, 2023, and the latter

date corresponds to the 1-year anniversary of Russia’s

unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine;

Whereas South Africa has used its stated stance of nonalignment in international affairs to justify increasingly close

relations with the PRC and Russia;

Whereas United States policy towards South Africa appears

to have failed in building a strong, reliable bilateral partner; and

Whereas it is in the national security interest of the United

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• HRES 145 IH

formation sharing with the PRC and Russia: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

2 (1) opposes South Africa’s decision to host mili3 tary exercises with the People’s Republic of China

4 and the Russian Federation from February 17 to

5 February 24, 2023;

6 (2) calls on the Government of South Africa

7 to—

8 (A) cancel all future military exercises with

9 the People’s Republic of China and Russia and

10 rejoin United States-led exercises, such as the

11 ‘‘Cutlass Express’’;

12 (B) respect the United Nations charter

13 and publicly oppose Russia’s unjustified and

14 unprovoked invasion of Ukraine;

15 (C) strengthen its political resilience to re16 ject the Chinese Communist Party’s authori17 tarian vision for South Africa; and

18 (D) maintain its national sovereignty by

19 reducing its reliance on Chinese companies in

20 key sectors such as information and commu21 nication technology;

22 (3) calls on the Biden administration to conduct

23 a thorough review of the current and future status

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6

• HRES 145 IH

1 ship in light of the aforementioned actions of the

2 Government of South Africa; and

3 (4) calls on the United States Government to

4 keep Congress apprised by providing regular and

5 comprehensive briefings on subjects relating to

6 South Africa including—

7 (A) a complete account of all known

8 United States-sanctioned entities and

9 transnational criminal organizations’ connec10 tions to illicit proceeds linked to wildlife traf11 ficking;

12 (B) a detailed account of positive economic

13 results stemming from South Africa’s inclusion

14 in the African Growth and Opportunity Act and

15 the United States-South Africa Trade and In16 vestment Framework signed in 2012; and

17 (C) a timeline to end the Biden adminis18 tration’s climate colonialism by including gas19 to-power initiatives to counter the widespread

20 and nationwide blackouts costing the South Af21 rican economy an estimated $200,000,000 per

22 day.

Æ

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Media contact: Nicholas Lorimer, IRR analyst, Tel: 071 901 2164; nicholas@irr.org.za   

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za 

Sinalo Thuku, Tel: 073 932 8506 Email: sinalo@irr.org.za