Trump Expelling South Africa from G20 Is US Strategic Error

December 19, 2025

The decision by U.S. President, Donald Trump, to exclude South Africa from the G20, during the U.S. Presidency, is an afront to the entire G20, Africa, and all nations of  the Global South, which are the majority of the world. The U.S. is now the President of the G20 from December 1, 2025, until the G20 Leaders’ Summit in December 2026. For this one year period, South Africa will suffer no harm while waiting for its participation in the G20 to be restored in 2027 when Great Britain will become the President of the G20. However, the same cannot be said for the U.S., which will experience a decline in esteem among nations throughout the world. It is still not too late for Trump to reverse his dreadful decision and function as an American Statesman in the footsteps of Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy; the latter two were loved by Africans.

Trump Violates the G20

The first official act of the United States’ Presidency of the G20 was on December 15, 2025, with the meeting of the G20 Sherpas and Finance Officers. However, unlike every other orderly transition for the last twenty-five years to a new Presidency of the G20, South Africa, a founding member of the G20 was excluded by President Donal Trump. The motivation for this egregious, unprecedented action by President Trump is his distorted geopolitical view of the world. There are no mechanisms in the G20 that allow the exclusion or addition of new member nations by a single nation. Such a decision can only be made by the consensus of the entire group of G20 nations.

 According to the G20 South Africa website, the G20 was founded in 1999 as a response to the Asian financial crisis of 1997– 1998, as an informal forum for the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the most important industrialized and developing economies to discuss international economic and financial stability. The G20 was upgraded to the level of Heads of State/Government in the wake of the global economic and financial crisis of 2007, and in 2009, when it became apparent that the necessary crisis coordination would only be possible at the highest political level.

The role of the G20 is to create the foundation for global economic stability, a vital catalyst for economic development…

G20 is composed of nineteen nations, reputed to be the wealthiest, representing around 85% of the global Gross Domestic Product, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population, plus the European Union and African Union, a recent member.

Some U.S. officials have questioned South Africa’s right to be a member of the G20 since it is not one of twenty the wealthiest nations. As the most industrialized nation in Africa, and a leader politically and morally on the continent, South Africa’s membership is more than justified. With Africa projected to have one fourth of the world’s population by 2050, it would be strategic folly to not include South Africa in the G20.

Lies About South Africa

U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in his article, America Welcomes a New G20 statedept.substack.com, exposes the outright venal lying attitude of the current U.S. presidency against the government of South Africa.

Rubio writes:

President Trump has rightly highlighted, the South African government’s appetite for racism and tolerance for violence against its Afrikaner citizens have become embedded as core domestic policies. It seems intent on enriching itself while the country’s economy limps along, all while South Africans are subject to violence, discrimination, and land confiscation without compensation. 

Rubio perpetuates two lies.

One, anyone familiar with South Africa knows that the government does not have embedded policies of violence against Afrikaners. Two, land is not confiscated without compensation.

Rubio is not willing to stretch his lies as far as his boss, President Trump, who on multiple occasions has accused the South African government of practicing genocide against  “white” Afrikaners. There have been accusations that white farmers have been killed and their land confiscated. No evidence has been provided to support such a claim. South African “whites” are in large part represented by the Democratic Alliance, a member of South Africa’s coalition government, who unequivocally deny Trump’s accusations of genocide. Additionally, leading Afrikaner groups have insisted that there is no genocide against Afrikaners in South Africa. Contrary to Trump encouraging “white” South Africans to emigrate to the U.S., leading Afrikaners have implored them to stay and participate in the development of South Africa, which they rightly consider their nation.

Rubio disingenuously whines that South Africa blocked the U.S. and other countries’ inputs into negotiations. It actively ignored our reasonable faith efforts to negotiate.

For these reasons, President Trump and the United States will not be extending an invitation to the South African government to participate in the G20 during our presidency.

This is the height of hypocrisy. It was Trump who refused to have an official U.S. representative at the G20 in Pretoria. In reality, as a result of Trump’s boycott of the G20 Summit, there was no one from the U.S. to negotiate with.

In his Response to Secretary Rubio, South African Minister Ronald Lamola, emphasized that,

South Africa is a founding member of the G20, no single member of the G20 has a unilateral right to exclude South Africa from the G20…South Africa’s Presidency was built on a simple, powerful belief: that treating Africa and the Global South as equal partners and honestly addressing the systemic macroeconomic issues that impede their growth, is not an act of charity, but a strategic imperative for a stable, prosperous world.

It is a matter of public record that the United States chose not to attend our G20 meetings. Given that absence, the notion of our “sabotaging” consensus is not just incorrect, it misunderstands the very purpose of a forum like the G20. Our role as host was not to force agreement, but to create the conditions for it: a table of equals, governed by the spirit of Ubuntu. That spirit, “I am because we are”, is not a slogan. It is the philosophy that steered our nation away from the precipice of bloodshed and towards reconciliation. (emphasis added)

Admittedly, South Africa has serious challenges with its economy and has one of the highest crime rates in the world. However, it is abundantly clear that Trump’s groundless attacks on South Africa will not contribute to South Africa’s progress. More portentously, they are not intended to help South Africa.

Trump Falsely Attack South Africa

On February 7th, 2025, less than three weeks after Trump assumed the presidency of the United States, he launched his campaign against the nation of South Africa. In his Executive Order, Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa, Trump asserted that South Africa was undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests. 

It is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation:
          (a)  the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa; and
          (b)  the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.

He then proceeded to cut off $400 million in funds for South Africa in its fight against the AIDS virus, which kills more South Africans than any other population.

Earlier this year, Trump started spreading the slander that South Africa is practicing genocide against white farmers in particular. It is reported that Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, first propagated this falsehood to Trump, who continued to spread this lie even after his breakup with Musk several months later.

To this day, absolutely no evidence has been provided to support this accusation of genocide. The Democratic Alliance, which represents many of the white farmers in South Africa has rejected Trump’s claim as nonsense.Trump preceded, without regard for the truth, to confront President Cyril Ramaphosa when he visited the White House in May of this year, displaying pictures of graves Trump alleged to be white South African farmers. In reality, these photos were actually graves from another African nation. Statistics of deaths in South Africa indicate that more black farmers have been killed than white farmers. Read: Trump’s Attacks on South Africa Are Wrong and Not in the True Interest of the USA

Trump’s Failed Presidency

Trump won both his first and second campaigns to become president as an outsider, not anointed by the Eastern Liberal Establishment. This was a positive feature of his presidency for which he was ruthlessly and unfairly victimized in his first term. Due to the harsh treatment he received in his first term as president, one could understand his lack of accomplishments in foreign and domestic policy. However, instead of making him stronger and more thoughtful, he has allowed his rage and thirst for revenge, among other weaknesses, to have thus far produced a failed presidency when it comes to Africa and the Global South. His inability to rise above the fray and articulate a vision for America that is coherent with a Grand Design for the world, (think Franklin Roosevelt) to promote global economic development, has shown to be a devastating defect in his character. Combined with his lack of an in-depth understanding of the principles of the American System of Political Economy, (think Alexander Hamilton) upon which America was founded, Trump has not succeeded in advancing a true American policy for home and abroad.

Despite his accurate criticisms of the “transatlantic elites” for imposing their ideology on the world, and his efforts to establish a more positive relationship with Presidents Putin and Xi, Trump is still a psychological prisoner of the West’s “rules-based international order.”  Thus far, he has not succeeded in freeing his mind from the “zero-sum” mentality that dominates the “rules-based order.” Unfortunately for the U.S. and the world, Trump’s thinking is contaminated with this perverted world view.

Is Trump’s exclusion of South Africa from the G20 yet another attempt to weaken African nations and prevent them from assuming leadership positions in global institutions? It appears that under Trump, African nations will be reduced to cogs in the supply chain of rare earth minerals for the U.S. Trump’s marginalization of Africa is on display in his new National Security Strategy, which allots three paragraphs to Africa, despite the reality that Africa will be at the center of commerce in the next twenty-five years, with its burgeoning population markets. Read: Trump Security Doctrine Rightly Criticizes ‘Trans-Atlantic Elites’-But Strategically Flawed. Fails to Prioritize Africa

Why South Africa

I will repeat here what I wrote earlier this year, because of its accuracy.

Let me be bluntly honest: I know that the nation of South Africa is no security threat to United States or our allies. The real crime, if you will, committed by the government of South Africa, is not to bow to the will of the United States and the so called rules-based international order.

Specifically, South Africa has provided international, moral, political, and economic leadership in the following spheres of its foreign policy:

• South Africa’s courageous leadership in bringing before the International Court of Justice, the charge of Israeli genocide against Palestinians living in Gaza, which is specifically cited in the Executive Order: “South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice.”
• South Africa’s membership as the first African nation to join the BRICS, which is emerging with its nineteen members and partners, as an institution of growing influence and leadership of the new dynamic of the Global South. President Trump falsely views the BRICS as an enemy of the U.S., having twice said he will destroy the BRICS with a “100 percent tariff” and on February 14, declared that the BRICS is dead.
• South Africa is a strong ally of China on the continent, and as a member of the BRICS has a close relationship to Russia. Iran, another target of the rules-based order is also a member of the BRICS. There are many “China-hawks” in President Trump’s cabinet and among his close allies, who following in the footsteps of Presidents Obama and Biden, erroneously assert that China is the number one enemy of the U.S. However, South Africa’s relations with member nations of the BRICS can be an advantage for U.S. policy.

Before the final G20 Heads of State Summit in December 2026, when the presidency is transferred to Great Britain, Trump still has the opportunity to amend his arbitrary exclusion of South Africa. For Trump not to repair its relationship with South Africa, would be a critical strategic error on the part of the U.S., further undermining its leadership in the world.

Read below my earlier posts on this topic:

Trump’s Attacks on South Africa Are Wrong and Not in the True Interest of the USA

U.S. Attacks South Africa For Its Moral Leadership & China Alliance

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X @lkfreemansafrica

Trump’s Attacks on South Africa Are Wrong and Not in the True Interest of the USA

February 25, 2025.

With forbearance I have followed the early days of our new president, Donald Trump. His actions to end the war in Ukraine are commendable. However, I  am now compelled to speak out against his unjustified attacks on South Africa and cutting off of aid to this important nation on the African continent. In this article I will address President Trump’s wrongheaded policy against South Africa.

Contrary to his claims of uprooting Washington’s establishment and draining the swamp, President Trump, appears to have become influenced  by followers of the so called rules-based international order when it comes to America’s foreign policy to Africa. Thus far, it appears that President Trump has not fully extricated himself from the “zero-sum” mindset that has dominated Washington’s ideology for decades. What is desperately needed now is the qualities of statesmanship, displayed  in the previous century by Presidents John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. The true self interests of the United States lie in making the “World Great.”  President Roosevelt envisioned in his Grand Design, a better world after World War II, in which the U.S. would play a leadership role. He created the original International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which he intended to be a vehicle for lending capital to developing nations in Africa in particular. This bank, commonly known today as the World Bank, has failed to implement President Roosevelt’s original intention.

U.S. Targets South Africa

President Trump under the influence of Elon Musk, the cost-cutter in chief, has issued an Executive Order, Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa in response to alleged land expropriations in South Africa.

President Trump issued this Executive Order on February 7, which states that the United States shall halt foreign aid or assistance delivered or provided to South Africa, because South Africa is undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests.

Let me be bluntly honest: I know that the nation of South Africa is no security threat to United States or our allies. The real crime, if you will, committed by the government of South Africa, is not to bow to the will of the United States and the so called rules based international order.

Naledi Pandor, then Prime Mister of South Africa, at the International Court of Justice (courtesy of dawnmena.org)

Specifically, South Africa has provided international, moral, political, and economic leadership in the following spheres of its foreign policy:

• • 1. South Africa’s courageous leadership in bringing before the International Court of Justice, the charge of Israeli genocide against Palestinians living in Gaza, which is specifically cited in the Executive Order: South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice.
  • • South Africa’s membership as the first African nation to join the BRICS, which is emerging with its twenty-two members and partners, as an institution of growing influence and leadership of the new dynamic of the Global South. President Trump falsely views the BRICS as an enemy of the U.S., having twice said he will destroy the BRICS with a “100 percent tariff” and on February 14, declared that the BRICS is dead.
  • • South Africa is a strong ally of China on the continent, and as a member of the BRICS has a close relationship to Russia. Iran, another target of the rules-based order is also a member of the BRICS. There are many “China-hawks” in President Trump’s cabinet and among close allies, who following in the footsteps of Presidents Obama and Biden, erroneously assert that China is the number one enemy of the U.S. However, South Africa’s relations with member nations of the BRICS can be an advantage for U.S. policy.

President Trump’s actions are echoed by threats against South Africa from the new U.S. Congress.

Four Republican Congressmen wrote in a letter to President Trump: …we urge you to revoke South Africa’s preference benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act [AGOA]…We would also suggest that you consider suspending diplomatic ties unless the government [South Africa] is prepared to engage constructively with your own.” (Reported by CNBC Africa.)

AGOA is a is a long standing trade arrangement to boost exports from emerging economies to the U.S. that has been turned into  a political weapon. President Biden immorally removed Ethiopia from AGOA, and now Trump is being lobbied to imitate his predecessor by perpetrating the same actions against South Africa. This is a dangerously misguided policy that is harmful to the people of South Africa and the United States. South Africa receives $440 million in aid, of which $250 million is allocated for PEPFAR to contain the spread of HIV-AIDS in Africa. This aid has now been cut off. The U.S. is also the second largest trading partner with South Africa, after China.

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has deliberately snubbed the G-20 Summit of Foreign Ministers, meeting in Johannesburg. This is especially troubling given that South Africa is the current president of the G-20, which is meeting on the African continent for the very first time.

 Land Expropriation Smoke Screen

There is no ongoing campaign for mass expropriation of land belonging to white South African farmers. Full stop! As reported by EIR News, John Steenhusien, parliamentary leader of the white-led Democratic Alliance, a coalition party of the government, said on February 8: There is no land being expropriated on a mass scale from anybody in South Africa without compensation. Trump’s Executive Order also states: the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation. Steenhusien, Minister of Agriculture, in the coalition government, opposes efforts to encourage white farmers to leave South Africa; their homeland. This sentiment is echoed by other Afrikaner organizations that do not want white farmers to emigrate.

On February 11, Helen Zille Chairwoman, of the Democratic Alliance said: He [Trump] was wrong to say land is currently being expropriated.

The Expropriation Act of 2024 is to develop land underutilized. According to a recent report, Assessing key aspects of the new Expropriation Act, land can be expropriated for only two purposes:

1) For a public purpose. The property concerned will be used by or for the benefit of the public. Examples would be when land is required for building a dam, a road, or a public nature reserve.

2) That it is in the public interest. The public interest includes the nation’s commitment to land reform and to reforms to bring about equitable access to all South Africa’s natural resources. To redress the results of past racial discriminatory laws or practices.

According to the act, compensation would be paid except in the rarest of cases such as: Where the land is not being used, and the owner’s main purpose is not to develop the land or use it to generate income but to benefit from appreciation of the market value. In other words, speculation.

Who Is Fooling Whom?

While white South African landowners and their supporters in the U.S. get all worked-up over the Expropriation Act, their complaints are ahistorical. They willfully ignore the history of South Africa, choosing to conveniently overlook what was done to  black South Africans in the 19^th and 20^th centuries under British Imperialism, epitomized by that racist pig, Cecil Rhodes. From 1913 on, land was “legally” taken without compensation from black South Africans, who under apartheid were forbidden to own land. BBC World News writes: The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 defined less than one-tenth of South Africa as Black “reserves” and prohibited any purchase of land by Blacks outside the reserves.

Think! How is it possible that 4.5 million white South Africans, approximately 7% of the population, own over 70% of farms owned by individual farmers, while Colors, Blacks and Indians own 24% of the farms. Are white South Africans superior to non-white South Africans?

Newsweek reports in their Feb 14 article on South Africa, that according to a 2017 state audit, white land owners controlled 72% of agricultural land, while black land owners only hold 4%. The disparity is extremely stark considering black people make up 80% of the country’s population whereas white people account for around 8%. Newsweek also refutes the allegation that government is facilitating mass murders of white farmers. They report the rate of murder among people involved in farming activities in 2015-16 to be 5.6 murders per 100,000, significantly lower than the country’s general murder rate of 33.9 murders per 100,000.

In the same article they write that an ‘expropriating authority may not expropriate…arbitrarily or for a purpose other than public purpose or in the public interest.’ It also states that land cannot be expropriated without compensation if it is currently being used. This means residential property, commercial property, farms, and mines are exempt from expropriation without compensation.

Contrary to fake news and claims by white South African farmers and their sympathizers, there is no mass murder of white farmers, or mass expropriation of their land, organized by the government.

President Trump speaks vaguely of white farmers being treated poorly in South Africa, without providing any evidence.

Malema-Musk Genocide Shell Game.

The allegation of genocide against white South African farmers supported by the South African government is highly inflammatory and is completely untrue. No evidence has been provided to substantiate this outrageous claim.

The accusation of genocide is dangerous, since it has been used in other nations for attempting regime change of elected governments.

The United Nations defines genocide as the intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Given the extensive networks that Afrikaners have in the U.S. including the Congress and Executive Branch, if there was an actual campaign to kill millions of South African whites, it would be well publicized.

Instead of any proof of genocide, we have the Malema-Musk side show, manipulating public opinion to create a discord between the governments of South Africa and the U.S.

Elon Musk, one of President Trump’s closest advisors, wrote in his July 2023 Twitter: They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa. Musk tweeted to President Cyril Ramaphosa: why do you say nothing?

The “they” he is referring to is the movement of Julius Malema, who provocatively chants, “Kill the Farmer, Kill the Boer.” The Boers were the early settlers from Europe (not Britain) to South Africa. Today, the term is used as a euphemism for all white farmers.

Julius Malema is the black South African leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters. Elon Musk is a white South African adviser to President Trump. In their public performances they appear as antagonists, putting on a show for the gullible. In reality, they could be kissing cousins. Each one playing their “assigned” role as a performer in a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy. The audience gets sucked  into believing the characters on stage, until tragedy befalls at the end. The intended victims of this tragic play are the people of South Africa. This is no conspiracy. Malema and Musk do not have to communicate with each other. They just have to be allowed to perform their character with sincerity, in this staged drama, to manipulate the uninformed and credulous. Sadly, their words have real consequences as we  are witnessing today with President Trump’s wrongheaded and harmful Executive Order.

 Make Africa Great

If the current U.S. president were more thoughtful, he would add to the MAGA a new acronym, MAG–Make Africa Great.

If President Trump and his coterie of wealthy business executives, who claim to be so smart at making money, why are they so dumb about the economic potential of Africa?

Africa’s expanding population is projected to reach 2.4 billion people by 2050. It will also have the largest number of people who would be eligible to join the workforce. The continent is also endowed with abundant resources and critical minerals. There is little doubt that the African continent will be the center of trade and commerce on the planet within the next generation. As a result, it will also become a predominant focus of foreign policy. Policies initiated by the U.S. today. towards Africa nations, will affect the future of the African continent, and implicitly all nations on the planet.

Africa’s huge deficit in hard infrastructure has prevented African nations from becoming sovereign industrialized countries. Most consequential is the absolute paucity of  electricity and the absence of a transcontinental railroad system. The quality and size of an economy’s  infrastructure platform delimits the economic growth of that nation. Greatly expanding vitally necessary infrastructure across Africa is the most obvious investment for industrial capitalists to assist African economies in becoming profitable. Think about the billions of African consumers. Think about the potential of all the nascent industries that can develop in numerous fields of manufacturing and agriculture. Technologically advanced American industries can become the suppliers to the needs of expanding African economies. Long-term investments in African nations will yield profits from physical growth, as opposed to speculation and the imposition of unfair terms of trade.

African nations need extended loans with interest rates of 2-3 percent directed to investment in infrastructure.

In the first administration, President Trump created the International  Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The mission of the DFC and its funding practices have to be greatly expanded. Its lending capacity has to be increased to meet the needs of potential investment in infrastructure throughout Africa. The DFC should become a bank for development, capable of lending hundreds of billions of dollars of long-term loans with low interest rates.

One of the stated goals of the many China hawks of the new administration, is to counter China in Africa. President Trump should break-free from the dangerously idiotic “zero-sum” axiom held dearly by the collapsing rules-based order. Instead, the U.S. should compete with China in fostering real economic growth in Africa. President Trump should lead the U.S. in building his own “beautiful” equivalent of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road, if the U.S. still has sufficient productive capacity. Better yet, why not have the U.S. collaborate with China in eliminating poverty and hunger in less developed nations, and bring about a “golden age” of industrial economic growth for the entire planet?

If President Trump adopts this, or an equivalent mission, then he will understand that South Africa, because of its earned political and moral stature in the Global South, can become a beneficial partner. South Africa, a member of the BRICS, endowed with rich mineral wealth, and the largest industrialized economy in Africa (although still small), is potentially a valuable ally of the U.S.

 I say to President Trump: you have already up-ended the Anglo-American Transatlantic Establishment and the ideologically corrupt NATO alliance. Why not become the American leader, who advances economic growth in Africa, superseding the 60 year old failed U.S. policy  of simply giving aid, but no development? This would leave a wonderful legacy of your second term as president.

Read below my earlier posts:

U.S. Attacks South Africa For Its Moral Leadership & China Alliance

South African Minister Pandor Speaks On Importance BRICS Economic Cooperation

South African Minister Pandor Speaks ”Truth to Power” in U.S.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World

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U.S. Attacks South Africa For Its Moral Leadership & China Alliance

December 20, 2024

The Republic of South Africa has been under attack in 2024, by the 118^th United States Congress. Thses attacks may escalate in the new Republican administration.

Congressman John James (R-MI), sponsored  H.R. 7256-HR7256/text– earlier this year, which was voted up by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and may become law in a vote by the full Congress before the end of this year. South Africa is accused of threatening U.S. security by maintaining a dialogue with the Republic of Iran, the Russian Federation, and People’s Republic of China, all of which are members of the BRICS. In H.R. 7256, Naledi Pandor, then South African Foreign Minister, is singled out. South African President, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Pandor are also vilified for bringing Israel’s genocidal behavior against the Palestinian people to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a United Nations created court. Cong. James also criticizes South Africa for participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. His proposed legislation recommends, that upon review by the State and Defense Departments, South Africa could be removed from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

On October 29, 2024, six Republican Congressman wrote to President Biden:

Pretoria [South Africa] has consistently failed to demonstrate a consistent fidelity to the rule of law and routinely takes measures to undermine our nation’s vital security interests – both clearly contradict AGOA eligibility requirements…and merit re-evaluation of South Africa’s inclusion as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country           

In this over the top assault, the letter also accuses South Africa of filing a “baseless claim” before the ICJ. The final paragraph exposes the motivation of these Congressman:

South Africa’s unmitigated embrace of the Chinese Communist Party raises further national security concerns and a present challenge. At the urging of the People’s Republic of China, South Africa is preparing to close Taiwan’s representative office in Pretoria by the end of the month. Under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the President conducts an annual review of beneficiary states. As you conduct this statutorily prescribed annual review, we urge you to re-evaluate whether South Africa should continue to benefit from AGOA preference benefits, and make it known to the South African authorities that they risk losing these benefits if they pursue this unjustified course of action against Taiwan. There is no reason why our nation should continue providing economic benefits to a country that consistently and proudly prioritizes the interests of Beijing and Moscow over America’s. (emphasis added)

There is speculation that President Trump will make an example out of South Africa and punish South Africa politically by removing it from AGOA. This scenario is not farfetched. Trump has already declared he will wage war on the BRICS, if he believes they are undermining the supremacy of the dollar in currency transactions among themselves. Also, President Biden has used AGOA, a commercial trade agreement, to politically punish African nations, including Ethiopia. We shall see if the new president ironically follows in the footsteps of his predecessor.

Why South Africa Targeted?

The dominance of the rules based order’s diseased ideology of a zero-sum world of political relationships, has put South Africa in the crosshairs of the U.S. Its political-economic association with the nations that Washington characterizes as the “axis of evil,” especially China, have made South Africa a victim of U.S. animus.

As an early member of the BRICS, the first African nation to join this new formation, South Africa has played a special leadership role in the Global South.

South Africa’s historic struggle for liberation from apartheid, led by Nelson Mandella, has given South Africa the fortitude to express its moral outrage against oppression. It is not surprising that South Africa, of all nations, brought to the ICJ, the criminal oppression of the Palestinians in Gaza, by Israel. Nor should one be shocked by the vile response of the U.S. led rules-based order, to this courageous act by South Africa.

To understand why South Africa, China, and the BRICS, are targets of the rules-based order, one has to comprehend the changing dynamic in the world. The so called developed northern nations, the G-7, are experiencing the decline of their hegemony over the rest of the nations of the world. The BRICS-22 nations comprise a majority of the world’s population. The nations of the Global South, endowed with the majority of the planet’s natural resources, including critical minerals, are beginning to assert their rightful prominence. It is imperative today, at this historic juncture in the world, for the Global South to lead a movement to create a new just economic system, a new paradigm of development, for the benefit of all people of all nations.

Below is an excerpt from a discussion with Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation for South Africa, 2019-2024. Pandor eloquently expresses the aspirations of South Africa, and the Global South:

We should encourage a new human relation across the world; one that is devoted to empowering all human beings and ensuring that we develop a more prosperous, a more engaged, a more skilled humanity able to address the fundamental problems that confront all of us.

The following is an edited transcript of Her Excellency Naledi Pandor’s presentation to Panel 1 of the Dec.7-8 Schiller Institute conference, featured in EIR magazine December 13, 2024

Our world today is experiencing a most profound and disruptive level of toxic politics, dominated by aggressive self-interest and neglect of the value of global cooperation. Multilateral bodies such as the United Nations have not been able to respond decisively. And the most powerful organ of the United Nations, the Security Council, is held hostage by great power competition and uneven use of the veto. Many commentators have referred to the past five years as a most toxic geopolitical environment, testing international relations and fraying long-established bonds that helped to avoid a world war for more than five decades. The period is also viewed by some as an inflection point, a period that offers up room for a new collective of progressive ideas that will seek to put people rather than interests first.

The South Must Step Up

There is hope that the South will step up. The concept of “South” is a contested one, as the region does not have a coherent connected grouping of nations with a shared hegemony such as exists with nations of the North. So, we are still grappling with the meaning and unity of the South. There are, however, promising signs of the emergence of new formations and policy perspectives. For example, South Africa has shown a positive commitment to international law and to the United Nations system, through its approach to the International Court of Justice in the effort to end the ongoing war against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian Territories. South Africa, in doing this, placed human rights and concern for those who suffer harm at the forefront of its foreign policy actions.

This was reminiscent of former President Nelson Mandela, who played a key role in several peace initiatives on the continent of Africa, and who shaped South Africa’s foreign policy as one that is based on the concern for others, on the promotion of human rights, and on international solidarity. So, “I care for you, because you care for me.” This relates to a very ancient African philosophy of Ubuntu, which means “I am human because you recognize in action my humanity.”

A second positive development is the increased maturing of the BRICS forum into an expanded body that seeks a more inclusive approach in global politics and international partnerships. BRICS has emerged as a positive forum in that it seeks to discuss new ideas on key issues such as science, innovation, trade, international financing, and the development of the South. The establishment of the BRICS New Development Bank and its early success give further hope for the creation of new institutions and new practices.

One of the realities…the critical importance of science and innovation, is that grant funding to Africa rarely includes funding for research, funding for innovation capacity, funding for advancing science on the African continent.

We also believe that devoted attention to United Nations reform and democratization of the Security Council is another positive opportunity that we should use to reshape world relations. The General Assembly meeting of last September committed to advancing reform processes, and to making the Security Council more effective, more efficient, more democratic, and more representative.

Lastly, I believe the task of the next five decades is certainly the adoption of workable strategies for the fundamental transformation of Africa. Our continent has to address the difficult challenges of inequality, poverty, and joblessness. Africa has a significant, impatient youth population, eager to achieve a prosperous, democratic, empowering Africa. The global community should therefore work closely with our African Union to advance implementation of our African blueprint for development, Agenda 2063. In this blueprint, we set out the critical areas of development, including water, renewable energy resources, infrastructure, and logistics for intra-African trade, agriculture, and food security. And we require that our partners should provide support to the continent to enhance capacity for implementation of this development agenda. We don’t need new plans; we need to make sure that existing plans are effective and that they work to the good of Africa, to the good of all humanity in the South.

We believe that the South can be a source of progress, of peace and security. Countries of the South should embrace democracy, the practice of human rights, and respect for international law as key guarantees of the means to end the toxicity of power competition that has truly eroded human relations. In fact, the erosion of respect for human rights, of respect for international law, poses a very serious threat to the practice of science, because undemocratic governments hate the honesty of scientific research, hate the opportunity of innovation. And thus, it is incumbent on all of us to adopt the ideas set out in the Schiller Institute development framework to really ensure that all the aspects of human endeavor which advance human progress are embraced by governments in the South as well as governments in the North.

We should encourage a new human relation across the world; one that is devoted to empowering all human beings and ensuring that we develop a more prosperous, a more engaged, a more skilled humanity able to address the fundamental problems that confront all of us. Because alongside the problems, we have a human capacity—an ingenuity—of problem resolution; and we need to unite in drawing that capacity together and ensuring that we use international relations to resolve the problems of the world…

I think the notion of preparing for war is a very poor example of leadership. What we should be preparing for is using our innate abilities in order to advance the world. We’re at a point where many countries hold very worrying and lethal weapons. I come from South Africa, which is a country that agreed to destroy the nuclear weapons that it had had the opportunity to build in the apartheid era. One of the first decisions of the new government headed by Nelson Mandela was that we would be against the holding of nuclear weapons. And that while we have nuclear scientific capability, it would be put to peaceful purposes and not be directed to weaponizing South Africa against any country in Africa or any part of the world.

So, I believe that what we need is fresh thinking. We need a civil society, and particularly intellectual organizations, to be more visible and vocal in presenting alternative perspectives on how we should view the world, and setting out from research clear examples of what we can anticipate should we go the route of a negative confrontation between the most powerful in the world. This will harm all of us. If the great powers are able to reach a rapprochement, it will allow for enhanced development, particularly of the poorest countries of the South. It will set the world on a very new trajectory and would offer an opportunity for real change and independence that we’ve not had since the beginnings of the end of imperialism and colonialism on the African continent.

So, this environment, while toxic, offers a new opportunity to engage in a very different way through international relations in building new partnerships among all the various regions of the world. But it is the most powerful who must make the decision to do something positive. Otherwise, they are going to generate a reaction which will lead to the destruction of the world and increased world instability as we are seeing from week to week in different parts of the world today….

China’s Role in Africa

Well, firstly it’s absolutely untrue that China has a colonial relationship with the African continent. In fact, through the partnership with China, many African countries have achieved a level of infrastructure development that they would not have achieved in the past 15 years, had it not been for resources provided from financial lenders in China.

What we have seen though more recently is rather than state-owned companies being the provider of grant or loan funding to African countries, it has become much more the private sector of China taking up that role. So, there have been concerns about increased indebtedness of African countries, but I think it’s an absolute creative imagination that suggests a similar relationship to the colonial experience. The roads that we see in several African countries, the development of railways, the building of bridges, the enhancement of port infrastructure are very different from the trade character of African countries under colonialism.

In the context of the G20, there is now much closer discussion about how the more developed countries, which include China as a G20 member, could collaborate more effectively in enhancing support to African countries. I think that’s a very positive development. Nonetheless, China remains a significant trading partner for the African continent, both in terms of exports from Africa, which are largely commodities, but also imports from China into Africa.

The change to the private sector has seen the establishment of local business plants in the African continent, so adding some productive capacity, which has for many decades been a desire of Africa. So, I think it remains a positive relationship. The issue of funding and particularly the growth in private sector debt is an area that many countries’ governments are now having to pay close attention to. But it is very different from the underdevelopment that we saw in the imperial and colonial periods. (emphasis added)

To read the full discussion click: Pandor

Read my earlier posts below:

South African Minister Pandor Speaks On Importance BRICS Economic Cooperation

South African Minister Pandor Speaks ”Truth to Power” in U.S.

South African Minister Pandor Articulates Principles of Development for Africa

Freeman Interview: Is The West’s Rules-Based Order Targeting Horn of Africa and South Africa?

A belated Happy Birthday to Ludwig van Beethoven, December 16, 1770, and an early Happy New Year to all!

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog:   lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World

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Based Order Targeting Horn of Africa and South Africa?

June 11, 2024

Listen to my one hour interview with “Spotlight Africa” from May 5. Click: South Africa, The Horn, West Rules-Based Order

Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa are still targeted for destabilization. Using the so far unpublished Memorandum of Understanding between Somaliland and Ethiopia as a pretext, foolish, but dangerous nonsense of a potential conflict is being propagated. This new level of potential economic cooperation in accessing a port, is potentially a very positive development in the Horn. All contentious issues should be resolved in calm, thoughtful discussion among African nations of the region, who understand their common interest and benefits from economic development.

Prior to the May 29, elections in South Africa, this courageous African nation was under attack from the United States Congress. A Congressional act, HR 7256, if passed would punish South Africa for its leadership in the Global South, and for being in dialogue with Russia, China, and Iran.

The western concocted, rules-based order has failed. Its continued targeting of  African nations, who do not bow down as slaves to West’s geopolitical doctrine has to end. Instead of an arbitrary set of Western rules, we need to create a new paradigm, where sovereign nations collaborate in creating a better future for all nations on this planet.

Principles that foster continued physical economic growth are superior to a fixed set of dictates on how nations should behave.

Read below my earlier posts:

• Lawrence Freeman: Why The “Rules-Based International Order” Has Failed and Will Always Fail: The Case of Africa
• African Leaders Speak Out for Physical Economic Growth at World Bank Forum
• G-7 “Rules-Based Order” Meddling in the Horn of Africa for No Good
• Anglo-American Elite Continue Threats to Break-up Ethiopia
• South African Minister Pandor Speaks ”Truth to Power” in U.S.
• Stop Foolish Talk of War in the Horn of Africa-Promote Economic Growth Instead
• On “Talk Africa” Freeman Discuses Geopolitical Attack on South Africa and Value of AGOA

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog:  lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World.”

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South African Minister Pandor Speaks ”Truth to Power” in U.S.

March 30, 2024

South Africa is under attack by the self-proclaimed international rules-based order, which is another name for the Anglo-American establishment. Naledi Pandor, who is the equivalent of the Foreign Minister for South Africa, in her visit to the United States, is challenging their geopolitical doctrine that erroneously views the world as a zero-sum game composed of only victors and victims.

South Africa is being assaulted in the United States Congress for its right to conduct its sovereign foreign policy with other nations. Congressman John James (R-MI) has spearheaded the passage of legislation H.R. 7256  through the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which alleges that South Africa is a threat to the national security of the U.S.

H.R. 7256  Section 3, sense of the Congress (1)

that the ANC’s foreign policy actions have long ceased to reflect the stated stance of nonalignment, and now directly favor that PRC, the Russian Federation, and Hamas, a known proxy of Iran, and therefore undermines the United States national security and foreign policy interest.

The mis-named U.S.-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act, with bipartisan support has passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and can now advance to a full vote of  to the House of Representatives.

According to this nefarious legislation, South Africa’s alleged “offences” include:

• Courageously bringing to the United Nations International Court of Justice, the genocidal behavior by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamim Netanyahu against the Palestinian people of Gaza.
• Remaining in continuous dialogue with nations of the so called axis of evil; Russia, China, and Iran.
• For participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
• For being a leader of the Global South and Non-Aligned Movement that provides an alternative to the diseased ideology of zero-sum geopolitics. .

In a March 21, press release from his office, Cong James writes: “South African officials have made a miscalculation by aligning themselves with Russia and China. It is in our national security interests for the United States to review our relationships with nations that may not share our values and align themselves with such actors.

This disgraceful piece of legislation, which attacks Minister Pandor personally, reflects the animus towards a nation that does not accept the absolute authority of the “rules-based order.” South Africa is being targeted by the United States, not for any single action it has taken, but because South Africa will not submit to the dictates of the Western political-financial elite.  South Africa, other African nations and those of the Global South will rightly understand this legislation as a full scale violation of South Africa’s sovereignty.

 

Minister Pandor, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC, March 19, 2024

Speaking Truth to Power

Into this environment, Minister Pandor challenged the precepts of geopolitical thinking in Washington, displaying courage, morality, diplomatic adeptness, all with a quality of grace and dignity, rarely seen in the U.S. Capital.

On March 19, I had the privilege of observing Minister Pandor in her discussion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and afterwards at an inter-faith dialogue at the South African embassy on ending the war in Gaza.

The event at Carnegie entitled: Are South Africa-U.S. Relations at a Turning Point? A Conversation With Naledi Pandor, was conducted by Dan Baer, Carnegie’s senior vice president for policy research. Baer’s argumentative attitude reflecting the prejudices of Washington, was constantly challenged by Minister Pandor, as can be seen from the partial transcript that follows.

Baer began by asking Min. Pandor to rate American political leadership. She responded, shockingly: I rate it at 6 for executive and below that for the legislature…. I’m not sure the legislators have an understanding of South Africa…. I think they make conclusions about South Africa’s international relations, without necessarily speaking to us. And this is very troubling…. If I were to make a statement about their policy, I would at least speak to us first, and attempt to understand, the cause, if any, might be of an emerging dissonance.

Regarding the United Nations, Min. Pandor said: I think we need to look at the composition and the functioning, and the capacity associated with having a Security Council. I think we should have African presence as permanent members…. I also think East Asia should have a presence. I think India being so big and not being a part of the permanent members is an odd reality….

Continuing on the UN, she said: we don’t need more multilateral bodies to replace the United Nations, but the UN needs to be reformed to be more than a monitoring body…. We need to consider the [UN] capacity for peace enforcement. We have to find a way of protecting innocent people when there’s a conflict.

Baer asserted that: the BRICS invited six new members, four of which are authoritarian regimes.

Pandor stood her ground, responding: Who makes these judgments? This assessment that you’re making…

Baer interrupted her, saying: You would challenge the premise that Iran, for example, is an authoritarian regime?

Min. Pandor: Is it your role to make that judgment?

Baer replied: I don’t think it’s me, uh, saying that. It’s widely regarded by most people….

Min. Pandor: I don’t know if they are an authoritarian regime. I do know that—

Baer interrupted: The minister of South Africa does not know if the regime in Iran is authoritarian?

Min. Pandor: I don’t have that definition in my logbook. I do have a concern about women, and their rights in Iran, and this is something I have discussed with the government of Iran, particularly my colleague, the foreign minister…. And to use our [South Africa’s] earned democratic success to say this actually works … because if we stop talking with everybody, because we define them in a particular way, I think that the models we have adopted would not have any meaning…. We use our post-apartheid progress as a way of exemplifying for others that we think this is a good practice to adopt.

Baer: It’s difficult to make the argument that South Africa’s example is available to people in Iran or China, or in Saudi Arabia….”

Min. Pandor: We’re not a perfect democracy by any means…. We have huge problems of poverty … which derive from our history … which we have not been able to fully address as an emerging democracy. But I do believe that there is a strength in being able to speak with everyone, because if you close off, I don’t think you achieve anything.

The discussion was contentious again when Baer criticized South Africa for bringing the charge of Israeli genocide against Palestinians living in Gaza, to the International Court of Justice, and not against Russia for the war in Ukraine.

Baer: What did South Africa intend to accomplish by bringing its case to the ICJ on Gaza? And how does South Africa square that with abstaining on UN resolutions with respect to Russia’s aggression to Ukraine? You compellingly spoke of the need for the UN to respond to the killing of innocent civilians, and certainly that’s happening in Ukraine. How does South Africa see connecting those two positions?

Min. Pandor: On Gaza, and what we hope to accomplish, the first thing is to stop the killing of innocent Palestinians, and what we’ve seen, what each of us watches every day, surely makes us horrified about ourselves, and our inability to stop that. So, we hoped that through the ICJ, through respect for it…as one of the international law institutions that through the provisional measures … would reduce the harm…. We knew that we may not stop the conflict in its entirety, but if we could reduce harm to the civilian population and get humanitarian aid in, we would be happy.

Min. Pandor: Provisional measures have been ignored by Israel, we’re seeing mass starvation now, and famine before our very eyes…. I think as humanity we need to look at ourselves in horror…. Speaking of Israel’s defiance to adhere to any law… there’s license, I can do what I want, and not be stopped…. The minute you allow something like this, then what you’re doing is setting in play a form of practice that will be very difficult to challenge in the future. We went to the ICJ, because we have always been told by those who know democracy better than us, that we must respect human rights, that we should respect UN institutions, that we should practice democracy, that we should end conflict in Africa. And so, we were merely practicing what is preached to us every day….

Min. Pandor: It behooves us to say, how do we find a better way…. It’s made more difficult by the most powerful countries in the world, because the impression that’s created is that it’s the weak who must respect, the weak should implement and the powerful can do what they want.

Min. Pandor: How do the powerful contribute to the greater good? What role is being played to ensure all of us hold up the highest standard? We’re the country that remains talking every week to both [Russia and Ukraine]. That’s saying we’ve got to get you in the same room. We participated in all the working groups, on the peace plan of President Zelenskyy. And we’ve now said, we think there has to be a meeting with Russia….

Talking of South Africa’s aspirations for the continent, Min. Pandor said: So, we do try to be good. But we don’t get it right all the time. … I believe we’re making an effort. And for us, the first prize would be in Africa to silence the guns, focus on development, industrialization, productive capacity, and achieving a livelihood for the majority of Africans, that places us in a different space of development. That is first prize, and first concern for us.

I completely concur with Minister Pandor: development, industrialization, and improving the livelihood of Africans is the first prize!

 

In the videos below, once can view Minister Pandor’s articulation of South Africa’s policy.

 

Read my earlier posts:

South African Minister Pandor Articulates Principles of Development for Africa

Int’l Court of Justice Rules Genocide Plausible: Netanyahu & Biden Losing Support

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is also the creator of the blog:  lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

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On “Talk Africa” Freeman Discuses Geopolitical Attack on South Africa and Value of AGOA

February 27, 2024

Talk Africa above, I discuss that the geopolitical faction in the United States is targeting South Africa because it will not submit to being controlled by the so called international rules-based order. South Africa is a important nation in Africa, a member the BRICS, and a leader in the Global South. It maintains close economic relations with China and has strong political ties with Russia. Sadly the U.S. executive branch, and the Congress, focus on countering China and Russia, but lack a consistent positive US-Africa policy,

Talk Africa below, I discuss that AGOA is insufficient to meet the needs of Africa. It is not transformative, and does not address the massive poverty and infrastructure deficits that hold back the economic development of African nations. There is only one valid measure for true economic progress: the increase in the per capita material standard of living of Africans.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is also the creator of the blog:  lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

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African Nations Must Proceed With Needed Industrialization

October 28, 2023

My colleague, PD Lawton, presents a thorough report on the creation of an industrial park in South Africa that will benefit the entire region-(read below). This directed economic development coupled with a comprehensive trans-continental rail transportation network and accessible electricity will transform the African continent. This is the method to end poverty and hunger across Africa.

Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) is a proposed industrial park in South Africa, designated with tax incentives as a special economic zone (SEZ). It is an initiative of the Limpopo Province provincial government and the flagship project of the SADC Industrialization Strategy in conjunction with  the African Union Agenda 2063. The aim is to promote industrialization through mineral beneficiation and value addition in agriculture and mineral resources. The manufacturing sector will produce processed metals such as steel, petro-chemicals and plastic production (processing of oil) as well as OEM`s (original equipment manufacturing) which is producing component parts for other industry sectors. Petro chemicals are needed to produce fertilizers. In 2022, South Africa imported US$1.51 billion worth of fertilizer. The security of food supply depends on synthetic fertilizer.

This economic hub is vital for a number of critically important reasons. It will serve as a catalyst for economic growth for the entire SADC region .Achieving of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on poverty reduction cannot be achieved without African economies manufacturing on an industrial scale including in that processing of agricultural products and processing of mineral resources which is known as mineral beneficiation.”

The African Free Trade Agreement inaugurated in January 2021,remains theoretical without operational SEZs in every region and connected by modernized high tech integrated infrastructure as epitomized by the African Integrated High Speed Railway Network which has been designed to connect economic corridors across the continent  by high speed electrified railway.

Read the entire article. https://africanagenda.net/musina-makhado-economic-integration-and-mineral-beneficiation-for-sadc/

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is also the creator of the blog:  lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

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African Minister Pandor Articulates Principles of Development for Africa

July 18, 2023

Below are excerpts from remarks by South African Minister, Dr. Naledi Pandor, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on July 4, 2023.*

Minister Pandor’s words speak eloquently for themselves. However, permit me to put a fine point of her focus on the importance of African nations fostering manufacturing and industrialization.

As a physical economist, I understand better than most people, the substance of her reasoning. The only true measure of a successful economic policy is: does the material standard of living improve from one production cycle to the next? And does the implementation of this  policy produce an expansion of real physical wealth from the present generation to that of their children? Throughout modern history, it has been proven repeatedly that real sovereignty requires a robust manufacturing sector, physical infrastructure, and increased industrialization of one’s economy.

It is a touch of poetic justice, that Minister Pandor delivered her remarks on July 4, the day the United States declared Independence from the imperialist grip of Great Britain. British suppression of manufacturing by the colonies was overturned and reversed by the adoption of the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton. Contrary to the myth that slavery was the underlying cause for the growth of the U.S as an economic power, it was the genius of Treasury Secretary Hamilton’s four economic reports that outlined the course of economic development for the newly formed nation.** If not for the decisive support of Hamilton’s policies by President George Washington, against the objection of those, who advocated, slavery, states’ rights, and agriculture as the only source of wealth, the American republican experiment would have failed.

Hamilton’s argument in his Report on the Subject of Manufactures, written in 1791, remains relevant today. A nation that cannot manufacture the essential commodities for the continuous progress of its people is endangering its national security.

 The essence of successful foreign, domestic, and economic policy by a wise government is founded on the same elementary principle: creating the economic conditions for the advancement of the physical wellbeing of its population.

*Ministerial meeting of the Bi-National Commission of South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

**Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics, by Nancy Spannaus, 2019.

Excerpts from, Minister Naledi Pandor

We spend too much time trusting others outside our continent and not enough time trusting ourselves. We need to change that history. I’m hopeful that our business leaders will leverage opportunities provided by the African Continental Free Trade Area.

I believe that the AfCFTA will be a catalyst toward the pursuit of beneficial economic integration in the continent. Through the Free Trade Area agreement, we have promised ourselves as Africans that we will increase intra African trade. That doesn’t mean we buy goods from country B and pretend they were made in the DRC. It means we must manufacture in the DRC and sell within Africa. It means we must manufacture in South Africa and sell within Africa. It means we must manufacture in Ghana, in Togo, wherever we find ourselves as Africans we become productive, and we change our conditions.

Another matter that we must address if the African Continental Free Trade Area is to be a success, is the value addition to our natural resources within the confines of our continent. Everybody is running after the rare mineral resources of the DRC but they’re not establishing factories in the DRC. Don’t sign any agreement if production is not to happen here. We must refuse. We must ensure that value addition beneficiation happens within Africa. And we must ensure that as Africans we derive full benefit from the value chain and that our people realize these much needed opportunities. The time has come for South Africa and the DRC to work at changing our condition. To work at changing our history. But to do these things it’s not easy, there’ll be much opposition. So, the challenge is can we work together honestly and faithfully. If we can do that, we will change our conditions. But if we allow others to divide us, to direct us as to what should suit us, we will never achieve these ambitions.

So honorable minister I close by saying the future is in our hands. It is only by working together that will bring the change that we all want to see. I look forward to our fruitful deliberations… Our people have placed on us the responsibility of ensuring that they enjoy peace and prosperity. Our relations have always been inspired by our commitment to Pan African ideals and solidarity…Our Pan African ideals impose a commitment on us to ensure the development of our countries, but the development of the entire continent of Africa. Our Pan African ideals and our solidarity ask us to pose difficult questions to ourselves as to what good we are making out of the wealth of the nations of Africa. How do we industrialize? How should we manufacture?…

Our main goal and vision is to see real changes in our people’s livelihoods. After all they don’t elect us because we are pretty or because we wear nice outfits. They elect us to change their lives. Our people want their children to be educated. They want their children to become responsible future leaders of our nations. Our people want girls and women to be empowered so that they can fully participate in our economies and in our political lives. Our people want us to create sustainable jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities for them so that our people become independent, self-sustained, enabled, and empowered to take charge of their own future and identity. Allowing our people to remain poor is to keep them in a prison of lack of advancement. So, we must change the condition of our people so that they are free to realize their full abilities. (Emphasis added)

Read my earlier posts:

South Africa and China Articulate Principles for Global Development at United Nations

China & Freeman Agree With The African Charter: “Economic Development is a Human Right”

Celebrate July 4th Time to Adopt Hamilton’s Industrialization Polices for Africa

Alexander Hamilton’s Credit System Is Necessary for Africa’s Development

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

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South Africa Energy Minister Rejects Western Dictates & Hypocrisy Against Africa’s Use of Energy Resources

The paucity of energy in sub-Saharan Africa is killing Africans every day. South Africa Energy Minister Mantashe has continually rejected demands by Western nations and their political-financial institutions for African nations not to exploit their own natural resources. To improve the living conditions of their citizens, African nations must industrialize their economies, which necessitates exploiting every resource available. Not only are these dictates an infringement on the sovereignty of African nations, but those in the West, who are trying to prevent Africa’s energy utilization, are contributing to poverty, hunger, and loss of life.

Reported on October 4, from news24.com

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says the African continent should not be dictated to when it comes to the pace of its energy transition. This as a R150 billion funding deal from rich countries to help fund South Africa’s transition from coal hangs in the balance.

In an address to the 2022 Africa Oil Week in Cape Town on Tuesday, Mantashe said the war in Ukraine has hit developing economies with high energy costs, along with increasing food prices and interest rates.

He said the climate change question “sits uncomfortably with energy poverty”, adding that the pressure on African economies to decarbonize quickly will expose it to the risk that its people will not have access to reliable and affordable energy if handled with haste.

“Africa must determine its pathway from high carbon emissions to low carbon emissions. It must take into account our developmental needs, & must not be dictated to by anybody else who is at a different level of development.”

“I see the protests outside this venue that said ‘fossil fuels a killer’, but I can tell you that hunger kills faster”.

“We have seen the increase of coal purchasing from us to EU growing eightfold, 780%. As they take our coal, they at the same time tell us to move out of it quickly. That is a contradiction that Africa must look at,” he said.

Read entire article here from news24.com

Originally posted below by africanagenda.net

Read below earlier posts from my website on this subject:

South Africa and China Articulate Principles for Global Development at United Nations

Nigerian VP: Osinbajo “Climate Justice Must Include Ending Energy Poverty” Especially for Sub-Saharan Africa

African Nations Desperately Need Energy for Economic Growth

South African Activist Campaigns for Nuclear Energy For Africa: Essential for Industrialization

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

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South Africa and China Articulate Principles for Global Development at United Nations

September 27, 2022

In her address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 21, Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation for South Africa, made an invaluable contribution. While many speakers at the assembly discussed important topics, she, along with Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, identified economic development as the crucial principle that the UNGA has to address. (See excerpts of their remarks below).

Unfortunately, the majority of leaders throughout the world have failed to understand the essentiality of promoting economic development as a strategic solution to war, and insecurity, and the only pathway to achieving lasting peace. Leaders of the West, especially from the U.S. , have failed to grasp this elementary concept elaborated by John Paul VI, when he wrote, development is the new name for peace. (1)

Unlike the last four generations of U.S. presidents, Franklin Roosevelt, did understand that the policy of promoting economic development is a strategic means of obtaining peace in the world. President Roosevelt organized for the creation of the United Nations (UN) as an integral component of his post war Grand Design, which most emphatically included the dismantling of the British empire. His proposed composition of nations to lead the UN, (U.S. Russia, China, and Great Britain) was an attempt to isolate the British and their imperialist policies. President Roosevelt discussed with his son, his vision for the UN, which was coherent with his intent of the Atlantic Charter and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. To wit: improving conditions of life in underdeveloped nations by fostering economic growth. He said to Elliott,

“These great powers will have to assume the task of bringing education, raising the standards of living, improving health conditions—of all the backward depressed areas of the world.”

Tragically for the world, President Roosevelt died before the inauguration of the UN, and the small minded, easily manipulated, Harry Truman, became U.S. President. In a brief time after assuming office, President Truman, embracing the diseased British geopolitical mindset, negated President Roosevelt’s vision to construct a better world with all nations participating in progress and prosperity. Civilization has paid dearly for the reversal of President Roosevelt’s paradigm.

Minister Pandor Echoes Roosevelt

In her presentation before the UNGA, Minister Pandor said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Eastern Europe shape our attitudes today; however, for South Africa, the real inflection point will be the world attending fully to the needs of the marginalized  and forgotten.

Our greatest global challenges are poverty, inequality, joblessness and feeling excluded… addressing poverty and underdevelopment will be the beginnings of the real inflection point in human history.

Global solidarity is also required to meet other pressing challenges such as energy and food insecurity, climate change and the devastation caused by conflicts, including the existential threat of nuclear weapons.

Instead of working collectively to address these challenges, we have grown further apart as geopolitical tensions and mistrust permeate our relations.

We should, however, move forward in solidarity, united in efforts to address our common global challenges to ensure sustainable peace and development.” (Emphasis added).

To read full transcript on Minister Pandor’s presentation at the UNGA: Click here.

Eliminate Poverty

In his address before the UNGA on September 24, Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, echoed the theme of peace through development, highlighting the importance of eliminating poverty. He told the assembly,

“We must pursue development and eliminate poverty.

Development holds the key to resolving difficult issues and delivering a happy life to our people. We should place development at the center of the international agenda, build international consensus on promoting development, and uphold all countries’ legitimate right to development. We should foster new drivers for global development, forge a global development partnership, and see that everyone in every country benefits more from the fruits of development in a more equitable way.

China has been a contributor to global development…China is a pacesetter in implementing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has met the poverty reduction goal ten years ahead of the envisioned timeframe and accounts for 70 percent of the gains in global poverty reduction. It has provided development aid to more than 160 countries in need, and extended more debt-service payments owed by developing countries than any other G20 member state.” (Emphasis added).

To read the full transcript of Minister Wang Yi: Click here

(1) Encyclical , Populorium progressio, March 26, 1967.

Read my earlier posts:

British Colonial Legacy Still Plaguing African Nations Today

Roosevelt: Last Great American Statesman With A Grand Vision for Africa

For the Development of Africa: Know and Apply Franklin Roosevelt’s Credit Policy

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

South Africa: A Leader on the Continent for Nuclear Energy

Mr. Kelvin Kemm, in this in-depth interview, excerpted below, discusses the realm of energy choices for South Africa as well for other African nations. More are considering nuclear energy as a safe and reliable power source for their economies. Mr. Kemm also discusses the anti-nuclear lobby and the causes for climate change. I recommend you spend the time to read through the entire interview.

“South Africa Builds on Its Nuclear Success”

Interview With Kelvin Kemm, who is chairman of the board of the government-owned South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, known as NECSA, Kemm: “The current situation is that nuclear is still on the agenda exactly as it was; it’s unchanged. There’s been somewhat of a delay because of various issues—we have a new President now, as of a couple of months ago, and a new Minister of Energy. But nothing has changed with the plan to add 9,600 MW of nuclear—to the existing total from all sources of 45,000-plus MW of electric power. “However, the wind and solar people have been making a lot noise and made quite a few inroads, in that they’ve influenced the public thinking a lot. In doing this, they’ve done quite a bit of sabotage of nuclear, in the sense that they spread false stories that nuclear power will kill your children, and that there’s an unsolved waste problem, and that South African workers will not be able to meet exacting nuclear standards. “In contrast…We say that you’re not going to run electric trains across the country on solar and wind, you’re not going run the gold mines; but we have no objection to solar and wind where they can work—in rural areas and in small applications, dedicated applications, which is in stark contrast to the anti-nuclear people, who condemn anything that has the word “nuclear” associated with it.

“I’d like to branch into something else, that there’s a lot of nuclear technology which is not nuclear power. So while the extreme greens are attacking the nuclear concept, they’re doing a lot of other damage. For example, South Africa is currently the second biggest supplier in the world of nuclear medicine; we’re major suppliers to the United States. In Pretoria we’ve got the only nuclear reactor in the world that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, producing nuclear medicine for the world, with deliveries taking place three or four times a day, every day of the year, including weekends and public holidays. We send this nuclear medicine around the world. It is a great life-saver for cancer patients, for example, and in diagnosing other diseases. “Last year, in 2017, I was invited to speak at the inaugural African Union Economic Platform meeting in Mauritius. One of the things I mentioned in my presentation was nuclear power for other African countries, and I was inundated with reaction. “Half-a-dozen-plus countries, now, have already spoken to us directly, asking if we can supply nuclear power to them. Now, that is in the form of the pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR), which South Africa developed a number of years ago. That reactor got to the point where we were ready to start constructing the first prototype, when the government of the day then put the project on ice. They didn’t actually close it down, but they put it into such low gear that it eventually stumbled to an effective standstill. “Golly, how can you have an African country dependent on rainfall to keep the lights on? You just can’t do that. And numbers of them said they had no coal, oil, or gas. “They said, what’s next? The anti-nuclear lobby has been going on with their hand-waving and demonstrating, to get solar and wind, but many of them have been very senseless. Hey, wait a minute—you don’t get solar at night. And so hopefully the wind blows. What happens when the wind doesn’t blow? Now, you’ve got nothing. And the green just say, well, that’s the way Mother Nature designed it: Live with it. “And so, many African countries have gotten wise about it, saying, wait a minute, we’re about to get suckered here into this thing. And they’ve realized now that the only solution they’ve got is to go for PBMR-type nuclear.  because with nuclear, you can stockpile fuel very easily, for a very long period of time. It’s very easy to keep a year or two, or three, or four of nuclear fuel supply in a couple of bunkers, because the volume is so small; whereas you could never keep two or three years’ worth of coal in a pile around a power station. Here in South Africa, we try to keep a two-week emergency supply of coal at power stations, and even that is a mountain of coal “the size of an Egyptian pyramid.” And they go through that very quickly” Read entire interview

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New British Attack on the New Paradigm in South Africa

Oct. 23, 2017–British Lord Peter Hain is leading a new attack on the South African flank of the New Paradigm of the BRICS and BRI. His fake news is that South African President Jacob Zuma and members of his family are part of a criminal “transnational money-laundering network”; he announced, in this manner, in the House of Lords on Oct. 19, the British Crown’s orchestrated offensive against President Zuma and his faction in the ruling African National Congress (ANC)–including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his intended successor as ANC President and President of South Africa. Hain served under Tony Blair–of Iraq War ill-repute—as Minister for Africa, Minister for Europe, Leader of the House of Commons, Privy Counsellor, and Lord Privy Seal. The Queen conferred on him a life peerage in 2015. Hain has written to Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond, expressing his concern that HSBC and Standard Chartered banks may have “wittingly or unwittingly” laundered funds for what he calls the “Gupta/Zuma criminal network,” a “transnational money-laundering network.” His letter names more than forty members of the Zuma and Gupta families, some other individuals, and related entities. The list includes the names of President Jacob Zuma and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The Chancellor has responded, reporting that he has referred Hain’s letter to British law enforcement agencies, including the Serious Fraud Office. The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI have also been brought in. This fraudulent attack comes just two months before the ANC election of a new party president, who will become the party’s candidate for President of South Africa in 2019. The chief contenders for party president are Dlamini-Zuma and London’s candidate, Cyril Ramaphosa, who scarcely conceals his satisfaction over the British attack on the Zuma faction. Ramaphosa said on Oct. 20 that the South African state has been “captured by people who want to milk the state, who want to rob our country of the money that belongs to the people,” and called on public servants to testify “when a commission of inquiry into state capture is set up.” (That “narrative” includes the now familiar condemnation of any major infrastructure by the government as “looting.”) South Africa’s opposition parties have also opportunistically chimed in, in support of the British attack. At an overflowing campaign rally for Dlamini-Zuma in Evaton Township, Oct. 22, members of her team were aggressive in denouncing the British attack. Earlier in the day, Dlamini-Zuma’s aide, Carl Niehaus, told the press, “We are not going to be told, by British people who think they can still behave like colonialists and [can continue] neocolonial behavior, how we should deal with a situation in our country!” Tshepo Kgadima, a political analyst for South Africa’s African News Network television (ANN7), commented that evening that Hain “wants to ensure that colonial rule will reign supreme on the peoples of this land, and that is despicable.” It is “nothing but the return of the old enemy that has been there from the time that we established democratic rule in South Africa.” Indeed it is, and a look at history shows that the “old enemy” has a much, much longer history in South Africa.

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British Drive Against BRICS Member South Africa Intensifies

David Cherry and Ramasimong Phillip Tsokolibane March 23, 2015 As South Africa’s government continues to orient toward the BRICS system and nuclear power, the global British-centered financial power is increasingly launching operations—through its institutions and networks— to reverse this turn away from the British system. These British operations are run from the U.K., the United States, and Europe—and in South Africa, from Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, and elsewhere Continue reading