South Africa in lock step with the Islamic Republic

On Friday in one of those rare and remarkable turn of events, a mainstream South African newspaper (the Star) published an article critical of president Mbeki’s pro-Iranian foreign policy. George Orwell once wrote that ‘at a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ In the context of our mainstream media’s habitual anti-Western line, Peter Fabricius’ (a respected South African foreign affairs columnist) article entitled ‘Mbeki misguidedly climbs into bed with Iran’ comes pretty close to such an act.

South Africa’s seeming support for Iran in its nuclear stand off with the West stems from Mbeki’s almost neurotic fear of the developing world’s favorite boogieman — neo-Western imperialism. Fabricius argues that South Africa’s strong endorsement of Iran’s right to enrich uranium is based on the fear that Western powers may try to prevent South Africa, as they are currently doing to Iran, from enriching uranium.

South Africa itself has not enriched uranium since the late 1990s. It became more economical to import uranium fuel for our only nuclear power station at Koeberg. However South Africa is currently experimenting with pebble bed nuclear reactors to produce electricity. And if successful, we may need to produce our own nuclear fuel to supplies these reactors in the future.

Mbeki fears that the “racist” West is not really interested in preventing the proliferation of WMD but rather to deny the developing world nuclear technology. This is surely another neo-imperial trick to stifle African progress. Fabricius quotes Mbeki actually saying as much to dinner guests on his recent official visit to London.

You get these whispers that Iran constitutes a trial run, and if there is success in terms of prohibiting Iran to do the things that are permitted by the treaty (the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty), that will then be extended to all other countries. So that you then not only have a small club of nuclear weapon states, but then you also have a small club of countries that can do anything at all in terms of developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. So the Iran thing is not unique in itself, but is a pacesetter for what might happen in the future.

The absurdity of this logic is actually laughable. But similar sentiments were expressed by senior minister in our government before the Iraq war. There was a sense that South Africa may be next on America hit list. What reason could there possibly be for America and its Western allies to invade South Africa or deny us the right to use peaceful nuclear technology? I mean we don’t even have oil!

As Fabricius explains

Suspicion flows from Mbeki’s ideological insistence on seeing the world fundamentally as a dichotomy between the developed world and the developing world and lumping South Africa indiscriminately with the latter.

Mbeki and his colleagues are so blinded by their anti-Western dogma that they fail to see the extensive differences between rogue states like Iran and Iraq and democratic South Africa. They fail to see that the Bush administrations foreign policy is not guided by rapacious colonial greed but by a desire to prevent WMD proliferation and the spread of global terrorism. Fabricius makes the point that the West is

concerned about Iran building nuclear weapons not because it is a developing country but because they believe Iran supports international terrorism and has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. By contrast the West remains unperturbed and even supportive of another developing country India not only enriching uranium but also frankly using it to make nuclear weapons. That’s because it trusts India not to use its nuclear weapons offensively.

The irony of the whole situation is that America’s neo-con administration and the ANC actually have strong mutual interests. Both are committed to the spread of freedom in the developing world. South Africa is one of the few examples of developing countries that have successfully embraced democracy. And while our current political system is not perfect, we certainly do have a lot to teach others. South Africa should be at the forefront of providing assistance to Iraqi’s fledgling democracy. However our government because of its irrational anti-Western worldview has mistakenly chosen to be in lock step with Iran’s totalitarian theocracy.

More IAS coverage on the murky relationship between SA and Iran:

Pahad's Past Tense
JPOST: SA provides diplomatic cover for Iran
SA and Iran in close consultations 
US seeking SA help over Iran
SA in new talks with Iran
SA side-steps calls by Iran to annihilate Israel
SA signs memorandum of understanding on bilateral communication with Iran

Comments

[Gary]

The problem is that they have been brainwashed in the Soviet Union , or even worse at Marxist universities like Wits-to be rabidly anti-Western
Also SA's penchant for befriending tyrranies makes me doubt the ANC's own democratic credentials

[gersh]

Here's some shock! horror! 4 Gary - I like many other mainstream capitalists also went to the "Marxist WITS". Perhaps that is why I can't understand the complicated Middle East as clearly as he does.

The ANC's naive and questionable foreign policy by no means make me doubt the ANC's democratic credentials. I may doubt the governing party's ability in selecting the right friends at the right times in international circles. But we are blessed to live in this country where the ANC fought against one of the world's uglier tyrranies to create a democracy. The peaceful resolution of this revolution is thanks primarily to the ANC's democratic credentials.

[Steve]

I totally agree with both Mike and Peter Fabricius. The ANC should jusge other countries by their behaviour - not their GDP.

As Gary will testify, I generally disagree with him on EVERY matter, but I dont think it's that unfair to question the ANC's democratic credentials.

That is to say, yes they are democratic - but how democratic?

I must admit that I don't think our government's democratic credentials are as strong as they claim. At least, not when democracy works against them.

Take the fiasco in the Cape after Helen Zille was appointed mayor. The last minute contract awarded to ex city manager (and ANC cadre) wallace Mqoqi just before the election was not very democratic. The ANC hasn't been very happy to allow the democratic election results to stand unchallenged in the Cape - because there they didnt win. It is not very democratic to only play the game when you win.

Laurence at Commentary said it well

The Cape High Court has chosen to uphold Wallace Mgoqi’s suspension, saying in no certain terms that his eleventh-hour contract extension by Nomaindia Mfeketo was illegal. This is good news: a sound defeat for the ANC’s tactic of using ANC bureaucrats to disrupt and undermine elected administrations they don’t like. But the “Mgoqi problem”, ultimately, was just a sympton of something greater: the ANC’s troubling habit of deploying party cadres to senior bureaucratic posts, who then treat the ANC as their primary object of loyalty, rather than the state or the constitution. This is the exact same problem that allowed the NIA to become an active participant in the Mbeki-succession war: the senior staff of the intelligence agency had become so stuffed with party cadres that it became almost a branch of the ANC, rather than a branch of the South African state. If Mgoqi had been capable of implenting DA policy rather than undermining it, there wouldn’t have been a problem. Unfortunately, too many of these cadres seem to have difficulty understanding that “party” and “state” are different things.

More here

[Gary]

Did you see that even the ANC's own alliance partners the SACP and COSATU claim SA under the ANC is heading toward a dictatorship.

[Steve]

Yes. And as much as I dislike SACP and COSATU they do have a point. It's the same criticism that others (like the Economist) have made of the ANC. Of course the SACP and COSATU are just as hypocritical and single minded - supporting that approach when it favours them and sniffing conspiracies when it doesnt.

That said, I do agree with Gersh, we are blessed to live in this country. And of course we are blessed that the ANC had men (and women) of such a high calibre that they were able to topple our previous ugly tyranny and transition to democracy (a democracy that they can take credit for creating) without substantial bloodshed. That goes without saying.

[Gary]

Of course the SACP and COSATU are hypocrites. They warn of dictatorship now but during the next elections' they'll campaign for the ANC to get a bigger majority!
Crazy!

[Anti-UN]

Unless they campaigning against the ANC and form some united "Father Zuma" front!

[Gary]

Trust me , next election the SACP and COSATU will vigorously campaign for the ANC to increase their majority , and the next one , and the next one , and the next one and the one after that...