We Trumped ourselves - Politicsweb

Terence Corrigan 
President Donald Trump has come out swinging about the prospect of land seizures in South Africa and “treating certain classes of people very badly.” The United States would not tolerate this and would cease aid to South Africa “until a full investigation of this situation has been completed.”

There has been some consternation about this, and even more indignation.

Trump is, of course, open to criticism for his present-tense assertion about land seizures. This is not at present happening. I would suggest that it’s also incorrect to say that the government is mistreating “certain classes” of people. South Africa endures broad-spectrum mistreatment, manifest in the persistence of poverty and unemployment, the increasing cost-of-living and insecurity burdens placed on its middle class, and the lack of opportunities felt even by its most affluent.

The trajectory of the country is one of stasis, if not failure, and until South Africa can raise its dismal growth rate to something approximating that of its emerging market peers this will remain the case.

Still, South Africans tempted to mount their keyboards and smartphones to denounce Trump, and politicians hoping to stick it to American imperialism – Minister Gwede Mantashe had the idea of refusing to sell minerals to America if aid is not forthcoming – might wish to pause for some reflection.

South Africa’s trade and investment relationships with the US are valuable assets; to see them undermined comes at a cost to both countries, though more so to ourselves.

Inasmuch as Trump may be mercurial and pugilistic, it should be remembered that South African policy has been at best ambiguous towards the US. This was not a “Trump thing”, as there were high-profile points of friction during the incumbencies of Presidents Obama and Biden. The positioning of the ANC has been explicitly hostile to the US.

South Africa has pursued close relationships with key US opponents in the form of China and Russia, which might have been unavoidable given their global footprints. It has, however, chosen to foster an optional friendship with Iran, which sends a clear message about how it views itself and its place in the world.

That is of course the good right of a sovereign country and its largest political party, but it should hardly be unexpected that this would lead to blowback – again, something that was already evident under Biden.

The lack of a skilled and competent diplomatic service meant that South Africa was simply unable to finesse the fraying of the relationship. The failure of our local institutions was seen equally in our foreign projection.

And on the economic front, a raft of growth-killing policy – B-BBEE, the minimum wage and so on – has steadily reduced South Africa’s economic standing and the proposition it can make to business audiences. It is the ANC and the government it has headed, not to mention President Ramaphosa himself, that have hyped expropriation without compensation (EWC) as the solution to South Africa’s land politics. It would, the President once laughably claimed, turn South Africa into a “Garden of Eden”.

Here again, there were entirely predictable consequences to doing this. South Africa’s business environment was a poor one. EWC added the ultimate disincentive of the seizure of assets to the mix.

It’s worth noting here that if Trump is responding to the signing of the Expropriation Act, he’s also wrong to assume (as his post implied) that this is all about land. The law is about property as a whole – buildings, classic artwork, pension funds – even if it has been presented in an idiom of land reform. The applications are extensive indeed, and concerning in the hands of an often venal and resource-starved state.

Expect American businesses to be concerned about this. Indeed, expect businesses of all stripes – not least those in South Africa, most exposed to the vagaries of policy – to be concerned about it.

Denouncing Donald Trump will no doubt provide many social media paladins with a few satisfying moments. South Africa’s long-standing debility owes very little to him; and while Trump may instruct his administration to inflict pain on South Africa, this will be a small matter compared to what South Africa’s own toxic policy mix and lack of statecraft have done.

Terence Corrigan is Project and Publications Manager at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR)

https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/we-trumped-ourselves