There was a minor media frenzy a few weeks ago when it transpired that President Cyril Ramaphosa had not been invited to the Group of Seven (G7) summit next week in Hiroshima, Japan. Much was made of the fact that Prime Minister Kishida Fumio had chosen to invite AU representatives rather than SA.  

My Japanese friends will be too polite to say so, but I am free to provide my opinion: I think the ANC sees Japan as a part of the West that supported apartheid. After all, Japanese people were famously classified as “honorary whites” by the apartheid government. It is shortsighted of the ANC to do so, and to align itself with those it sees as fraternal revolutionary movements — the Russians, Cubans and Palestinians — and allow ideology to dictate foreign policy. ..

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