LETTER: Understanding the ANC’s commitment to Russia

The chorus of opprobrium and ridicule that has followed South Africa’s delegation to the US to try to find a “diplomatic solution” to its strained relations with the West (Editorials, April 13-19) has perhaps missed the point.

The position adopted by the government may be influenced by Russian money and historical sentiment, but in the main it reflects an ideological commitment hard-wired into the ANC. The party’s geopolitical orientation — clearly articulated in its documents, and filtered into the state’s formal stance — is one in which global “imperialism” is the all-consuming threat, with events to be understood accordingly.

Thus, the US invasion of Iraq was forthrightly denounced as “a criminal war of aggression against the people of Iraq” (this is still on its website), while the Russian invasion of Ukraine is seen as a defensive measure against the machinations of imperialism. Unfortunate, perhaps, but understandable, and never to be condemned — lest, of course, one should want to appear “infantile”.

The position of the government is not, in fact, without principle; in a way it is deeply principled, and it will not be abandoned soon, irrespective of the alienation of its trading partners or the risk of real economic damage. In fact, this applies to domestic policy too, with race-based policy and the politicisation of the civil service regarded as beyond any discussion, their manifest costs notwithstanding.

As Brian Pottinger remarked in his book The Mbeki Legacy, there is an odd symmetry between the ANC’s stance and that of PW Botha in the 1980s: if only the world understood, all would be well. This is not the case, but furtive attempts at explanation are about all the incumbent government can be expected to offer.

Terence Corrigan
Institute of Race Relations

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