GARETH VAN ONSELEN: A picture of darkness — SA from the outside
A relentless series of incidents is adding up to form an image of a country without integrity
The French newspaper Le Monde recently ran a story titled, "En Afrique du Sud, le sorcier d’un village à la tête d’un réseau cannibale", which means: "In SA, village sorcerer at head of cannibal network". It is indicative of the kind of international coverage the country tends to get these days. Human rights, once the foundational value underpinning our approach to foreign affairs, has slowly been snuffed out as a guiding light and core value. In its place has come little more than embarrassment and humiliation. Over the past decade, SA’s global reputation has become defined by ignominy.Today, it is hard to say who our ambassador to the UN is, let alone what it is that we do there. It is easy, however, to identify a series of local events that have made international news for reasons other than trade or peace. There was Mandela’s memorial, of course, broadcast across the globe and defined not only by the booing of President Jacob Zuma, but also by a sign language interpreter who, wh...
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