World
Anger rises over South Africa making millions in US benefits while cozying up to Iran, Russia and Hamas
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa is under fire for spending millions of dollars talking to terror group Hamas and sending delegations for cozy negotiations with U.S. adversaries Russia and Iran. Some critics say the money would be better spent tackling the “chaos” back home.
South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in the world, rampant crime and widespread corruption, which has led to large parts of Johannesburg having no water for 10 out of the past 11 days, and, nationally, power blackouts between four and 11 hours a day.
The U.S. helps South Africa gain billions of dollars a year in trade benefits through the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA. Orde Kittrie, law professor at Arizona State University and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital it’s time for South Africa to be thrown out of the program.
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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the first plenary session as part of the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit at the Sirius Park of Science and Art in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 24, 2019. (Sergei Chirikov/Pool via REUTERS)
“The ANC-led South African government has, in its relations with both Russia and Hamas, violated the requirement that AGOA beneficiaries not undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy and, with regard to Hamas, violated the requirement that AGOA beneficiaries not “provide support for acts of international terrorism,” said Kittrie, who also served as a State Department attorney and policy officiaL
“The AGOA law’s requirements really leave the Biden administration no choice but to terminate South Africa’s AGOA benefits unless such activities cease.”
South Africa continually makes controversial diplomatic moves, including allowing Russian ships to play war games just off the coast and permitting a Russian arms ship, the Lady R, to dock at a South African military base. This has attracted the attention of Sen. Tim Scott, the ranking Republican member of the Senate subcommittee on Africa and a member of the Senate subcommittee on banking.
“South Africa has harbored sanctioned Russian ships, expanded relations with Iran and issued statements against Israel’s right to defend itself following Hamas’ recent terror attacks,” Scott said in a recent statement.
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Also, according to the USAID dashboard, Washington gave South Africa $660 million in aid in 2023.
Herman Mashaba, president of the relatively new political party ActionSA, told Fox News Digital, “The ruling party prioritizes Cold War-era alliances above the interests of the South African people. Our close relationship with Russia has jeopardized investment into the country, which cost jobs which South Africa cannot risk losing.”
Public hearings in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel begins at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Jan. 11, 2024. (Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“At the same time, 86 people are killed in South Africa per day,” Mashaba continued. “Every 11 minutes, a woman is raped in this country. The ruling party has in 30 years been unable to address these crises and instead pays attention to everything except finding solutions to these issues.”
The State Department weighed in.
“Russia is waging a brutal war against the people of Ukraine, and we are constantly working to cut off support and funding for Putin’s war machine and to undercut Russia’s ability to carry out this conflict,” a department spokesperson said. “We have strongly urged countries not to support Russia’s war.”
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On Tehran, the State Department spokesperson noted, “Iran is an adversary and the leading state sponsor of terrorism. It seeks to sow instability in the Middle East and around the world.
“We call on all countries to condemn Hamas, as Hamas is a designated terrorist organization and deserves condemnation”.
J. Brooks Spector, a former U.S. diplomat and associate editor of The Daily Maverick, spoke of his concerns to Fox News Digital:
“South Africa has rarely supported America internationally in grave crises such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters protest on the street in Tsakane township, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, March 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
“Beyond AGOA eligibility, South Africa might find itself at risk of seeing the major American contributions of PEPFAR funds combating HIV/AIDS begin to lessen or even end, as funds are shifted to other nations.”
This would be disastrous. Even with support from the U.S., South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Part of the challenge for South Africa, going forward, is its desire for a foreign policy strategy that seeks to be a visible player in resolving international disputes far afield from its home continent such as Ukraine and Gaza, while largely ignoring equally urgent issues nearer to home,” Spector said.
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Firemen spray water on flames erupting from a building at South Africa’s Parliament in Cape Town Jan. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
South Africa has “a completely chaotic approach to foreign policy in recent years,” Emma Louise Powell told Fox News Digital. Powell is shadow minister for international relations for the country’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, or DA.
Powell criticized the government for getting involved in talks on the Israel-Hamas war, “given the bloodbath unfolding in South Africa’s backyard, on the African continent, in countries such as Sudan, the DRC and across West Africa. This is not to mention the political and economic crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe.
“South Africa has not even condemned Russia’s illegal invasion. This is intellectually dishonest, given the funding the ANC is receiving from Russian-linked oligarchs and companies, and we see that this position is leading to South Africa’s increasing isolation.”
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Senator Tim Scott has criticized the South African government over its dealings with US adversaries, and the country’s corruption problems. (Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) (Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images))
Spector added, “Such a mix of behaviors means South Africa risks becoming increasingly irrelevant internationally, both as a country with real political heft and as a valuable investment and trade partner with anyone besides China.”
Then there’s the systemic corruption. Two years ago, hundreds of senior politicians and businessmen, mostly linked to the ruling African National Congress, or ANC, were accused in the 5,000-page State Capture report for links to corruption, yet very few have been prosecuted.
“Many Washington foreign policy insiders are now for the first time seeing the ANC for what it has, sadly, become since (President Nelson) Mandela’s retirement, a party whose rampant financial corruption has impoverished South Africa’s people and led it to ally itself with America’s enemies including Russia, Iran and Hamas,” FDD’s Kittrie warned.
South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor addresses reporters after a session of the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Jan. 26. (AP)
Earlier this week, Sen. Tim Scott tweeted, “The U.S. cannot continue to simply look the other way when it comes to corruption in South Africa. As we consider AGOA reauthorization, it’s important that we take steps to ensure the program’s eligibility requirements are actually enforced.”
The State Department is so concerned about corruption in South Africa it sent Fox News Digital an additional statement that some analysts say contains a veiled threat.
“The fight against corruption is a core U.S. national security interest,” the statement said. “The United States considers the use of several foreign policy tools for countering corruption, including but not limited to financial sanctions. Beyond this, it is the policy of the United States to not comment on internal deliberations regarding the use of sanctions or to preview potential actions.”
Kittrie added, “U.S. officials are noticing that the ANC is not itself holding its corrupt officials accountable, with the ANC-led South African government reportedly making no significant progress in prosecuting South African officials who were bribed and, most recently, the ANC placing several corruption-tainted officials on its list for re-election.”
Pinkie Sebitlo cooks using a coal stove during frequent power outages caused by South African utility Eskom’s aging coal-fired plants in Soweto, South Africa, June 23, 2022. (REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko)
Action SA’s Mashaba added “it is unacceptable that two years after the State Capture Report was submitted, not a single high-profile individual has successfully been prosecuted”
Last week, the South African Foreign Minister, Naledi Pandor, announced any South Africans with dual nationality who are fighting for Israel in Gaza will be arrested when they return.
“We are ready. When you come home, we will arrest you,” the minister said, referencing a long-standing law that South Africans may not fight in wars for other countries. Yet, when the Iraqi ambassador here claimed as many as 300 South Africans had left to take up arms for the terror group Islamic State in Syria in 2015, there were no such public threats of arrests for returning fighters.
Analysts predict Foreign Minister Pandor could face some tough questions during her visit to Washington, scheduled for this week.
The ANC government is likely to lose sole and majority power of South Africa in elections coming in May. Last week’s latest poll by the Brenthurst Foundation predicts the ANC will only get 39% of the vote. The party is likely to go into coalition, with analysts predicting this probably will be with the “revolutionary” EFF, the Economic Freedom Fighters.
A man brandishes a toy gun during a pro-Palestinian demonstration organized by the South African opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters in front of the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria Oct. 23, 2023. (Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images)
The EFF wants to grab White-owned farmland with no compensation, according to its election manifesto.
“As the EFF, we have never promised [White people] that we will not take the land. We don’t owe them anything,” EFF leader Julius Malema told cheering crowds at the manifesto’s launch.
And the China-leaning EFF warned the 600 U.S. companies operating in South Africa that if the Americans working for them don’t like the EFF’s policies, “they can leave with immediate effect.”
Fox News Digital reached out to both the South African Foreign Ministry and the ANC but did not receive a response.
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Senior Iranian clerics would have been left “exposed” after an Israeli airstrike hit a meeting place where they were supposed to be convening Tuesday — days after a strike leveled the Tehran compound of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a defense analyst has claimed.
The clerics, members of the Assembly of Experts, had reportedly planned to meet at the location in Qom to deliberate succession plans for Khamenei, who was killed in the strikes, according to The Times of Israel.
“This second strike would be another embarrassment to what has been left of the regime,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital.
“It indicates intelligence dominance and superiority because any movement is detected, meaning they would feel exposed,” Michael added.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike Saturday. (Getty Images)
“As of now, the leadership would feel insecure and hunted, with all of their plans collapsing one after another.”
“They would feel totally isolated and understand that the biggest risk might come from home — from a potential uprising next,” he added.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin confirmed that the Israeli Air Force struck the building where senior clerics had planned to assemble, The Times of Israel reported.
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A general view of Tehran with smoke visible in the distance after explosions were reported in the city, Monday, in Iran. (Contributor/Getty Images)
It remains unclear how many of the 88 members were present at the time of the strike, according to an Israeli defense source cited by the outlet. The second strike on Iran’s leadership comes amid a broader military campaign.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, U.S. forces have struck more than 1,700 targets across Iran in the first 72 hours of Operation Epic Fury, according to a U.S. Central Command fact sheet.
The campaign is aimed at dismantling Iran’s security apparatus and neutralizing what officials describe as imminent threats.
According to U.S. Central Command, targets have included command-and-control centers, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Joint Headquarters, the IRGC Aerospace Forces headquarters, integrated air defense systems and ballistic missile sites.
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The USS Thomas Hudner fires a Tomahawk land attack missile in support of Operation Epic Fury, Sunday, while at sea. (U.S. Navy/via Getty Images)
“We need strategic patience and determination, and in several weeks most of the job will be accomplished,” Michael added. “Even if the regime does not collapse, Iran will not be like we used to know.
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“I assume that the U.S. and Israel will establish a very robust monitoring mechanism that will enable them to react whenever the regime tries to reconstitute its military capacities again.”
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Hungary’s last-minute veto on the €90 billion loan to Ukraine highlights the need for the European Union to move away from unanimity, Rob Jetten, the new prime minister of the Netherlands, said on his first trip to Brussels since taking office.
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“The new Dutch goverment is in favour of less and less decision-making by unanimity on the European level,” Jetten told a group of media, including Euronews, on Tuesday.
“This is a clear example of why that is important because we cannot explain to our constituents that Europe is sometimes way too level in reacting to great issues that affect us all,” he added.
Jetten called on his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán, to abide by the delicate deal that the 27 EU leaders reached in December after fraught negotiations. The compromise saw Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic promising the necessary unanimity to amend the EU budget rules in exchange for being exempted from the joint borrowing.
Officials and diplomats in Brussels believe that by vetoing a critical piece of the loan at the last stage of the legislative process, Orbán has breached the principle of sincere cooperation that binds the bloc’s decision-making.
“If you reach political agreement on the Council level, we expect every member state to uphold that agreement. And if not, it’s a big task for the European Commission take action,” Jetten said.
In the new coalition programme, the Netherlands calls for the “simplification” of the Article 7 procedure that can deprive member states of voting rights when they commit grave violations of the rule of law. Hungary has been under Article 7 for years, but there has never been sufficient political momentum to move to the harder enforcement phase.
“It is absolutely necessary that we support Ukraine in the months to come to make sure they can continue their fight against Russian aggression,” Jetten went on.
“With less and less American support for the Ukrainians in terms of money and weapons, it is up to the Europeans to deliver.”
Orbán’s veto centres on the interruption of Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, which Kyiv says was attacked by Russian drones on 27 January and has remained non-operational since then.
But Orbán says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has deliberately shut down the pipeline for “political reasons” to influence the results of the upcoming Hungarian elections. Orbán trails in opinion polls by double digits.
Caught between the two rival camps, the European Commission has asked Zelenskyy to repair Druzhba and Orbán to lift his veto. Meanwhile, Hungary and Slovakia have proposed a fact-finding mission to inspect the damaged section of the pipeline.
“We expect the European Commission to solve this issue,” Jetten said. “If it’s helpful to have any fact-finding missions on the pipeline to fix this issue, I’m open to it. But everything begins with: a political agreement at the Council level is a political agreement.”
‘Too early’ for a date on Ukraine’s accession
Among the first debates facing Jetten as premier is the future of enlargement, a topic on which the Netherlands has expressed well-known reservations in the past.
Zelenskyy is advocating for a specific date for Ukraine’s accession to be enshrined in a prospective peace deal, something that could offset the pain of territorial concessions. Last week, he openly suggested 2027 as an aspirational benchmark.
The Commission says it cannot commit to a clear-cut date but is working on legal avenues to revamp the notoriously complex process and ensure the Ukrainian people have greater certainty in their path to membership.
Asked about the potential reform, Jetten said enlargement should be reconsidered from a “geopolitical perspective” but urged the bloc to be “careful” with next steps, warning that the essence of the European project risks being undermined.
“We are very open-minded to look into broader support for these (candidate) countries, but moving too fast is not the way to move forward,” the premier said.
“I think, at the moment, it’s not possible to set a date for enlargement with Ukraine, but it is possible to talk with them, and I will do that with President Zelenskyy, (about) how Europeans can support Ukraine in the important reforms that they have undertaken. But at this moment, it is too early to set the date.”
Jetten also touched upon the US-Iranian strikes on Iran, which have pushed the Middle East into uncharted territory. Wholesale gas prices have soared in reaction to the war, prompting fears that Europe might soon face a prohibitive bill to refill its underground reserves, which are running low after the heating season.
“Obviously, the Iran war can have a big impact on strategic reserves, not only in Europe but also in Asia. So we have to prepare ourselves for any case that this war will continue for many more weeks and impact the strategic reserves in the Netherlands and abroad,” he said, noting extra measures would be taken “if necessary”.
“I think the broader concern is what this war and everything that’s going on in the Strait of Hormuz is going to affect in terms of pricing.”
‘The Netherlands is back’
Jetten’s D66 party has formed a minority goverment with the liberal VVD and the conservative CDA, all of which support European integration. His tenure puts an end to the fractious four-party coalition headed by the right-wing, Eurosceptic Party for Freedom (VVD) of Geert Wilders, which was marked by constant disagreements.
Among the priorities, his executive has pledged to ramp up defence spending, simplify regulation, promote new technologies and expand renewable energy.
“As a founding (member) and the fifth (largest) economy within the EU, the Netherlands is back at the table to work closely together with everyone here in Brussels and our allies within the EU,” Jetten said.
“We see a lot of opportunities to strengthen the European economy and competitiveness, and also to make sure that we do our job with a lot of tax-based money to invest in the European defence and the European defence industry.”
Jetten and the other 26 leaders are heading for a no-holds-barred fight on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the bloc’s seven-year budget. Brussels has proposed a €2-trillion template that some capitals consider politically unpalatable.
Where to cut spending will be a major fracture line. Germany, the Nordics and the Baltics want a greater focus on strategic priorities, while Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe want to preserve the prominence of agriculture and cohesion funds.
The Dutch premier made it clear that the next budget should focus on the big transitions shaping the continent’s future: defence, technology and climate.
“A modern MFF doesn’t mean an exploded MFF in terms of numbers,” he said.
“The Netherlands will look into the numbers very closely, and we will have a lot of debate on this topic in the months to come.”
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