SA WON'T BUDGE ON GAZA

SOUTH Africa will not budge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) matter against Israel to appease the US president Donald Trump's administration

The US government's announcement to freeze all future funding for South Africa is part of the punishment for South Africa’s dragging Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the ICJ over the genocide in Gaza, as put forward in a February Executive Order.

In addition, 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, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.

Trump’s administration has cut funding to various health initiatives after gutting US AIDS, with the help of SA-born billionaire Elon Musk, who has also amplified the voice of Afrikaner interest groups. 

Trump has attacked SA’s Land Expropriation Act, saying that it targets white farmers, with no evidence as tensions between the US and SA have risen, resulting in the expulsion of SA’s ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool.  

But Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Ronald Lamola says SA will not change course.

Speaking at the ANC NEC yesterday, said: "We are not going to compromise on our international relations policy in respect to the ICJ matter and our outlook on human rights as well as our own domestic issues which are foregrounded in our constitution of South Africa. On transformation, the International Human Rights Council has confirmed.”

ANC's first deputy secretary general, Nomvula Mokonyane said in spite of the executive orders by the Trump administration which seek to curtail some of the funding, South Africa is prepared to suffer any consequences the Trump administration wants to mete out against South Africa.

Mokonyane says: "Our approach is about managing and maintaining our trade relations as well as existing diplomatic channels. Hence, we have patiently through our government supported by the ANC emphasised and re-emphasised the need to relate and cooperate in line with what is known to be the diplomatic channels of communication between all the countries.”