TONY LEON: Trump has exposed our sleeping diplomats
'Sisulu’s wonderment on Trump’s 10-second damnation of SA suggests something seriously amiss at the SA embassy in Washington'
EXTRACT
Sisulu herself at the same briefing stated: “South Africa is concerned about the trade relations with the US and did not want to have adverse relations with any country.”
Under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) this country enjoys R112bn in goods and service exports under hugely preferential rates. It is the linchpin of our entire automotive industry and it is conditional: one of the key conditions for its continuance is the protection of property rights. Sisulu’s concern is more than justified.
But instead of seeking scapegoats for Trump’s eruption –which in truth has far more to do with him shoring up his core base of white supporters than any concerns with events here – Sisulu should start with some departmental introspection.
There was the predictable part of International Relations Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s reaction to the Twitterstorm that US President Donald Trump unleashed last week on the vexed debate about expropriation without compensation. At her monthly media briefing on Monday, Sisulu said SA lobby groups opposed to land reform should stop spreading blatant lies on the issue overseas – and implied that such strong-arm tactics undermined “domestic stability”. Well, of course, that is what you would expect her to say. But this boilerplate denunciation of the “usual suspects” was, according to a News24 report, followed by an admission by the minister: “Sisulu admitted to being ‘taken aback’ by a tweet by US President Donald Trump last week in which he said he had asked his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to ‘closely study the South African land and farm seizures and expropriations and large scale farm killings’." At one level, Sisulu is in good company. Even members of the president’s inner circ...
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