By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The former South African President Thabo Mbeki says it’s important to strengthen South Africa’s relationship with the United States (US).
Mbeki was answering questions from the audience during his engagement with students and academics at UNISA on Friday.
US-South Africa relations have deteriorated sharply since Donald Trump returned to power in mid-January.
Since taking office, Trump and his ally, South-Africa born Elon Musk, have singled out South Africa, in particular criticising it over its land reform policies.
Trump has cut all aid to the country and, despite his hard-line stance on most refugees and asylum seekers, says that members of South Africa’s white, Afrikaner community would be granted refugee status in the US because of the persecution he says they face at home.
Mbeki touched on a range of geo-political tensions, he gave South Africa’s current frosty relations with the US most of his attention.
“Personally, it’s a matter that worries me because as a country we don’t need enemies. We have too many problems for us to be nurturing enemies of any kind.”
Mbeki believes serious engagement with the Trump administration might even save the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
AGOA is a US congress-sponsored act which gives select African countries duty free access to American markets.
South Africa has committed to correct the country’s racial and economic imbalances following decades of white-minority rule by passing measures to help the country’s black majority.
Fullview understands South Africa is preparing a bilateral trade agreement as a backstop in case it loses access to a preferential accord. And it’s shoring up its diplomatic presence in Washington following the expulsion of the country’s ambassador this month.
Ebrahim Rasool, 62, was ordered to leave the US last week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio called him a “race-baiting politician who hates America”.
This came after Rasool accused US President Donald Trump of trying to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle”.
Mbeki said he was not surprised that Rasool was expelled by the Trump administration.
“Ebrahim Rasool is an old friend and comrade of mine. But I think in this instance, he made a mistake and said things about his host president that he should not have said.
“When I saw this and I saw the persona non grata, I was not surprised,” Mbeki said.
He went on to say that it was critically important that South Africa understand that it needs good relations with the United States (US).
“I was very glad when he (Rasool) landed in Cape Town and while talking to people, he insisted that whatever may have happened in his case, it was critically important that South Africa must understand that it needs good relations with the United States.”
Mbeki further reiterated it was pivotal that this incident should not serve as an obstacle in restoring good relations with the US.
“I am sure Ebrahim Rasool himself would recognise this. As a diplomat, you do not represent yourself. You cannot speak in your private capacity, there is no private capacity,” Mbeki said.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration nominated Leo Brent Bozell III, a conservative activist and writer, to be the country’s ambassador to South Africa.