TRADE union federation Cosatu and the SA Communist Party (SACP) are not backing down from Sunday’s rally to welcome home now-former South African ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool after his expulsion.
This is despite President Cyril Ramaphosa urging people to refrain from partaking or engaging in action that may seem inflammatory and worsen the already volatile diplomatic relationship with the US.
The ANC in the Western Cape has bowed to pressure and indicated that it will adhere to Ramaphosa’s call, according to the party’s Khaled Sayed.
However, Sayed said it is incorrect to say the ANC bowed to pressure. "We are still attending and supporting the homecoming reception which is organised by our own regional structure," he explained.
Melvin de Bruyn, Western Cape provincial secretary of Cosatu, who initially made an announcement calling for Rasool’s welcoming rally at the Cape Town International Airport, responded with questions on what Ramaphosa meant by toning down the welcoming celebrations when asked if the event was going ahead despite the president’s plea.
SACP Western Cape provincial secretary Benson Ngqentsu said: “We are joining the home welcome programme of Comrade Rasool to assert our national sovereignty because we deployed Rasool to the US to advance and deepen our diplomatic relations with the US with the context of our shared National Democratic Revolution, not as a puppet of the populist right-wing-authoritarian imperialists. This is the bottom line".
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) this week indicated that it had started its internal processes to identify and recommend Rasool’s replacement to Ramaphosa, who will make the final decision.
Ramaphosa’s office also stated that his administration was engaging with the City of Johannesburg regarding the renaming of the Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive after the Palestinian freedom fighter.
While it acknowledged that the government has a historical mandate to rename the streets in South Africa to reflect and set apart the new dispensation from the old one, the Presidency said it recognised the diplomatic sensitivities around the renaming of Sandton Drive, particularly with the US.
“It is for this reason that the national government, through the Dirco, is in talks with the city. The purpose of these talks is to agree on a process that will allow the national executive to manage the diplomatic tensions with the US without further enflaming the situation,” Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said.
The motion to rename Sandton Drive, on which the US Consulate is situated, was tabled by the Al Jama-ah party in November 2018.
The party had initially proposed the name City of Ramallah Drive following the City of Joburg signing a twinning agreement and a memorandum of understanding with the Palestinian city in the West Bank.
The motion was later amended and the EFF proposed Leila Khaled Drive instead, and this was approved by the council.
Al Jama-ah councillor Thapelo Amad said the total number of public comments received, both supporting and objecting to the proposed name change, amounted to 112 029 submissions received.
These responses comprised 77 694 in support of the renaming proposal for Sandton Drive and 34 335 against the proposal, according to Amad.
He said Al Jama-ah, as part of the government of local unity (GLU) with the ANC, EFF, and ActionSA, among other parties, would not support any moves to rescind the renaming of Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive.
“It would be unfair, first to Al Jama-ah, if the ANC would want to renege from this motion.
The majority of the parties that constitute the GLU also represent the will of the people,” Amad explained.
He said the motion to rename Sandton Drive was tabled with the one to change William Nicol Drive to Winnie Mandela Drive after the late Struggle icon.
“There is no party in our coalition that will go against the resolution of the collective,” Amad said of previous attempts by parties in the GLU to reverse the renaming of Sandton Drive.
Professor Ahmed Haroon Jazbhay of the University of SA said the current impasse with the Trump administration represents an opportunity for South Africa to recalibrate its foreign and economic policy away from reliance on the Global North towards a more diversified posture.
He admitted that this would be easier said than done and unlikely to be resolved in the short term.
“South Africans need to buckle up, it's going to be a rough four years,” warned Jazbhay, referring to the length of US President Donald Trump’s second term.
He added that quite frankly, South Africa is in an unenviable position because no matter who it sends as Rasool’s replacement, it will unlikely satisfy the white supremacist leanings of a country (US) desperate to cling to its declining global hegemony.
“Pragmatically speaking, any ambassador that South Africa appoints must be able to navigate the complex terrain of geopolitics while speaking truth to empire and standing up for the values enshrined in our Constitution and international law,” Jazbhay explained.
He added: “The honeymoon phase in our democracy is over. Time to play among the hawks. Opportunity for bold leadership and policies to demonstrate our sovereignty.”
Professor Kedibone Phago, director of the North West University’s School of Government Studies, said it was important that South Africa understands its own interests and positions on various global issues.
“This means appointing an ambassador would require someone with the ability to represent such interests regardless of whether such interests are contrary to those of US interests. It is the role of the ambassador to maintain diplomatic channels in handling bilateral relations with the US,” he said.
Phago said South Africa is a country that is diverse in every sense of the word and does not need to apologise about its makeup.
“It is our reality that we have embraced and need to celebrate it. We usually find this as a strength and need to use it to our advantage. This means even in the appointment of ambassadors, we should maintain a diversity of representatives to remain true to our constitutional values and principles,” he stated.
According to Phago, this meant there should be no discussion on the neutrality of Rasool’s replacement in terms of alignment or non-alignment of South Africa’s foreign policy, but rather ensuring that the next ambassador is able to represent the country’s national interests in the best possible way.
Speaking at the Sol Plaatje University’s Human Rights Day dialogue on Friday in Kimberley, Northern Cape, Nelson Mandela Foundation chairperson and former International Relations and Cooperation minister Dr Naledi Pandor urged the South African populace to speak far more clearly and really say to the US “we are a country seeking to transform after horrible decades of racial oppression”.
“We will set out our process of transformation on our own terms and we cannot be directed by someone else as to how to address the subject of redress,” she said.
The ANC Veterans League said South Africa’s democratic national interest is under threat by right-wing reactionaries, including at home by minority groups such as AfriForum, Solidarity, and now the Cape Independence Advocacy Group.
“As the ANC, our strategic position, both politically and diplomatically, should be to oppose, call out, and build alliances against the rising reactionary, imperialist moves of Trump and his allies. It is naïve to believe that you can rebuild diplomatic relations with an implacable enemy,” the league declared.