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Naledi Pandor has been unprofessional and downright incompetent in her position as foreign minister, choosing to put her own personal ideology before SA’s national interests.
Rather than commit SA to valuable economic and global alliances and profitable trade partners, she aligned the country with terror groups such as Hamas, rogue states like Iran, and pushed us closer to Russia and China, two imperialistic countries that do not have SA’s best interests at heart.
During her tenure Pandor risked having SA struck from the African Growth & Opportunity Act, which would have severely dented our trade with the US. SA has become a global embarrassment among the rich and successful countries that we should trading with and imitating.
Pandor demonstrated contempt for Israel and SA’s Jewish community, demonstrated by her snubbing local Jews and refusing to condemn Hamas for the mass violence of October 7. This does not reflect the will of SA’s people, but her personal ideology.
Hopefully the government of national unity and the new era of coalition politics will usher in far more rational foreign policy that looks to benefit South Africans, build ties with regional partners and look towards the West as a far more beneficial trade partner and friend.
While it is probably too much to hope for, a DA foreign minister in cabinet would go a long way towards repairing our damaged international reputation, and may a necessary step to put SA back on the right side of history.
Nicholas Woode-Smith Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Pandor pushed own ideas
I couldn’t agree more with the headline on Yacoob Abba Omar's most recent column (“SA needs a political and intellectual heavyweight to replace Pandor as foreign minister”, June 19).
Naledi Pandor has been unprofessional and downright incompetent in her position as foreign minister, choosing to put her own personal ideology before SA’s national interests.
Rather than commit SA to valuable economic and global alliances and profitable trade partners, she aligned the country with terror groups such as Hamas, rogue states like Iran, and pushed us closer to Russia and China, two imperialistic countries that do not have SA’s best interests at heart.
During her tenure Pandor risked having SA struck from the African Growth & Opportunity Act, which would have severely dented our trade with the US. SA has become a global embarrassment among the rich and successful countries that we should trading with and imitating.
Pandor demonstrated contempt for Israel and SA’s Jewish community, demonstrated by her snubbing local Jews and refusing to condemn Hamas for the mass violence of October 7. This does not reflect the will of SA’s people, but her personal ideology.
Hopefully the government of national unity and the new era of coalition politics will usher in far more rational foreign policy that looks to benefit South Africans, build ties with regional partners and look towards the West as a far more beneficial trade partner and friend.
While it is probably too much to hope for, a DA foreign minister in cabinet would go a long way towards repairing our damaged international reputation, and may a necessary step to put SA back on the right side of history.
Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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