Dirco’s quest for red-list reparations is a ‘pathetic’ waste of time

Yup, on a radio interview, it seems that Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) spokesperson Clayson Monyela is of the opinion that the UK should compensate South Africa for damages caused after the country decided to bar travel between us and them.

Sure, there’s some precedence for this but you’d have to go back to 1902 for the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging and the Crown’s agreement to pay over 3 million pounds to the Boers for development.

Since then, the UK has been pretty weary of making any reparations since it’s realized that, well, y’know, it probably doesn’t have to. They still have that nice little stone of ours. I’d say rather let them keep that lest they decide to tax us for using their language.

But the UK never had an obligation to keep South Africa off of its red list. There’s this thing called sovereignty that allows countries to make their own decisions. Would you believe it?

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Like that time when JZ justified e-tolls by claiming that the N1 was not a national road in Malawi. As hilarious as that was, especially considering the state of many of our roads, it’s not like Malawi being pissed off at South Africa is going to bother us. They have little of offer us, so that relationship is not exactly worth much time relative to our larger trading partners.

Of course if South Africa had some leverage on the UK, it may want to keep it’s relationship with South Africa nice and cosy, but I have my doubts that’s the case.

Also, giving Boris Johnson the opportunity to give us the most eloquent Oxford middle finger would probably be a bad idea and he’ll relish the chance to make a meal of it. It’s been a long time since we’ve heard of South Africa during Prime Minister’s Questions.

So back to this story about the UK paying for the damage it caused by putting us on the red list. Yeah, it’s not going to happen. It’s actually worrying that the response to hurting us is to expect them to “unhurt” us. It’s like being in school, getting beaten up by the bully and then expecting them to do your homework because you’re too sore to write. Sure, it seems like it should make sense but it really doesn’t.

You could, if you really wanted to, tell on the bully. Their parents or headmaster may reprimand them but in the world of international relations, there are no parents and the headmaster relies on the other children to mete out its decisions.

When it comes to our playground, who do you think other countries will side with in a UK-SA battle royale? Yeah, exactly. And even if one or two did side with us, it’s not like Yemen would be of any help.

The question Dirco is toiling with is pathetic. We’re never going to get any money from the UK just because they hurt us. They have neither the obligation nor the desire. It’s also very telling that we’re again, living in this bubble where we believe that we should be shielded from any bad things and absorb all the good things.

International actors make errors. Hell, we’ve made a few ourselves, it’s the nature of the game of international politics when you’re trying to do what you believe is in the best interest of your own population. It won’t stop just because some foreign governmental department sends you a letter of demand because you hurt them. It won’t stop because we make you feel bad about hurting us.

There will still be a brazen Christmas party in Downing Street and the only mention of South Africa would probably be amongst laughter at the thought of sending us some money for the red list fiasco.

The way you stop these things from happening is that you make it difficult for them to happen in the first place. South Africa should not be begging for reparations. It should be positioning itself so that if this ever happens, we’re the ones ready with the middle finger.

It’s rather embarrassing that 60 years since independence from the Crown, we’re still sending out the message that we’re controlled by its decisions.

It’s really time South Africa thought long term about its role on the international stage and strengthened its position. It’s time we took policy decisions that aren’t signs of awful weakness. After all, our government is not a bunch of policy makers from Malawi.