According to reports, America plans to replace South Africa with Poland on the G20 table in Miami.
Secretary-general of the ANC, Fikile Mbalula, says the US government’s continued attacks on South Africa mean the country should start strengthening trade relations with other nations.
It is not clear whether it means South Africa is slowly giving up on resetting relations with the US, but reports suggest that President Cyril Ramaphosa is growing tired of Donald Trump’s constant “bullying” of South Africa.
Mbalula was speaking at the ANC Greater Johannesburg’s 16th regional elective conference in Woodmead on Thursday.
Their attempts mean we, too, must intensify good trade relations with other countries, but we will never forsake our country for the beliefs we stand for.
“Our sovereignty, multilateralism. Those are the things that we stand for, that we will pursue with other countries, but we also stand for peace, and that is what South Africa stands for,” he said.
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What did America do now?
Washington has rejected South Africa’s participation in next year’s G20 Summit in Miami.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also continues to criticise the South African government and its policies, which the Trump administration believes are oppressive to white minorities in the country.
“Mandela’s successors have replaced reconciliation with redistributionist policies that discouraged investment and drove South Africa’s most talented citizens abroad. Racial quotas have crippled the private sector, while corruption bankrupts the state,” he said.
Mbalula responds
Mbalula has described these utterances as attacks on South Africa’s independence. He described the Trump administration as aggressors.
“They have now communicated a decision in public that we are not invited to the G20 as a member in Miami, even to participate, so that is the worst aggression among nations that you could have a state taking such a decision.
“Look at Cuba, the people of Cuba were isolated for saying they will be independent in their sovereignty and for affirming that they are a socialist republic, and then they hit them with sanctions and an embargo up until today,” he said.
Mbalula said the US must understand that South Africa is not an extension of Washington.
“Rubio speaks of South Africa like it is one of the states in America; he does not understand that this country is a country in Africa,” he said.
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