Washington has made its AGOA decision. Tomorrow, South Africans make theirs – IRR

Yesterday the United States announced that it would remove South Africa from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) from January 2027, ending duty-free access for many exporters.

The decision was Washington’s, but the policies and priorities it objected to were chosen by governments South Africans elected. Votes have consequences, says the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), and tomorrow’s are no exception.

Tomorrow’s local government elections have no direct bearing on AGOA, and nor will the loss of AGOA, on its own, change the policies that led to it.

Whatever one makes of Washington’s reasons, the episode puts export jobs at risk, hands those in power someone else to blame, and fixes nothing in any South African council.

If the policies that deter growth and investment are to change, South Africans will have to change them, by organising, petitioning, litigating and voting out those who fail them.

That work starts closest to home. Local government is where South Africans deal with the state as individuals. When the water is cut, it is cut to a household. When a council collapses, its residents pay the price. Only 39 of the country’s 257 municipalities obtained clean audits in the Auditor-General’s latest report.

“Every vote tomorrow is cast by one person, in one ward, about one set of services,” says Dr John Endres, CEO of the IRR. “A party that is sure of your vote because of your race or party card has no reason to earn it by what it does. And when a council fails, it fails everyone, whatever their race. The only people a race-based council reliably serves are the connected few who win its tenders and its jobs.”

Race-based procurement and cadre appointments turn a council into a prize. The result is inflated tenders, unqualified officials and failing infrastructure, and the poor pay most of the price, though these policies are adopted in their name.

The IRR holds that rights belong to individuals, not to racial, ethnic or language groups. A well-run council treats every resident as a citizen with an equal claim on its services, whatever their colour, language or political loyalty. The freedom to own your home, to trade and to be treated equally under the law belongs to the street trader in Khayelitsha as much as to the citrus farmer in the Eastern Cape.

“No foreign government can fix the water supply in Hammanskraal or a pothole in Soweto,” says Endres. “Voters can. That power belongs to each citizen individually, and no party, group or foreign government can use it on their behalf.”

Media contact: John Endres, IRR CEO Tel: +27 76 480 1290 Email: john.endres@irr.org.za

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