The ANC says it is not willing to back down on its BEE policy.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has dared the United States (US) government to sanction ANC leaders.
This comes after relations between South Africa and the US appear to have degenerated, with US lawmakers voting to advance a bill that seeks to review the relationship between the two countries. If successful, the bill could also lead to some ANC leaders being sanctioned by Washington.
President Donald Trump’s administration has also slapped South Africa with a 30% tariff hike on all goods exported to the US.
This comes into effect on 8 August.
Mbalula hits back at US
Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Mbalula was defiant.
“If it means that we have to suffer through sanctions as leaders of the ANC let it be. We will never back imperialists to subvert our democracy, to subvert our sovereignty.
“We will never forsake our country which we fought for its liberation and we are still marching on even now.
“Not this ANC, not this leadership, if they want to bring sanctions on us, let them bring it on,” he said.
Mbalula insists that there is no genocide in South Africa and that the constitution protects people of all races.
“This country, South Africa, all its citizens know that it is a democratic country, it’s a liberated country and we are still transforming this country in order to achieve equity, and we will still pursue redress because we are not equal,” he said.
Is SA being punished?
Mbalula said the ANC is not willing to abandon its key policies, especially BEE.
He indirectly said the US is asking the ANC to lose its identity.
“You are asking the ANC, this African National Congress to stop struggling and close shop and become something. We are not the DA they can agree with that because they do not want affirmative action,” he said.
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Mbalula described the upcoming tariffs as punitive measures.
“We must understand that the tariffs imposed by the US are negatively going to affect our economy and you cannot say on national interest, undo BEE and all of that in order to appease to United States of America because among others this is what the US wants from us, that we must do away with certain policies which for us, in terms of transformation, is not going to be possible.”
US’s historic relationship with the ANC
Mbalula said the ANC had a tense relationship with the US during the apartheid era. He said Washington classified the ANC as a terror organisation at the time.
“This ambassador of the US that has been sent to us now is one of the proponents of that resolution of banning the ANC and that we should be regarded as a terrorist organisation.
“Our president then, Oliver Tambo, had to go to the US to clarify that we are not a terrorist organisation,” he said.
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SA delegation in the US
Mbalula said he is disappointed that even now, the US does not recognise the efforts the party is making to transform South Africa.
“We go to see him through the president of a democratically elected South African government, we sit with him and he plays videos for us. And then he says on the basis of those videos the whole nation must be punished. He is not coming to the G20 and that is it, despite the facts saying something different,” he said.
Mbalula said the South African government has been at pains trying to convince Washington that there are no human rights abuses in the country.
“In the delegation, we sent prominent business people who say that this thing that you are talking about is not the way it is unfolding in the country, but they are not retreating. And they are intensifying,” he said.
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