「Another lesson is that public opinion matters and the perception of the value and condition of SA has deteriorated to the point that many would question why they would now stick up for a country with anti-democratic foreign policy vectors.

[…]

After 1994, the #ANC basked in the glory of global approval, the early success of the transition gaining SA a slice of the moral high ground, able to punch above its weight in international fora. But #NelsonMandela is long gone and it is apparent that the old anti-West agenda has been dusted off by a new class of politicians fond of rents and those who dispense them.

The ANC no longer has the wiggle room it once enjoyed. #SouthAfrica is now judged as any other country and is being found wanting.

[…]

There is a pattern here: South Africa takes an ill-considered position and then backpedals furiously when the diplomatic chickens come home to roost.

The trouble with this strategy is that it creates an impression that the country is not being honest about its true feelings which, on the evidence, suggests it desires a decisive pivot away from the world of #democratic nations towards that dominated by #authoritarians, but wants its #Western partners to ignore this.

Regrettably for South Africa, there is a growing lobby in the #US and elsewhere that takes a dim view of this pivot, that wants to stop this charade and remove privileges that the country enjoys under the #Agoa trade deal, among others.

The ANC now faces the cold winds of disapproval which it is struggling to deal with, in part because it is now so full of its brand of sanctimonious ideological bunkum that it can’t see straight, because foreign policy was until now seen as a relatively cost-free domain in which to prove one’s liberation credentials in the absence of delivery at home, and partly because there may be inducements pulling it in other directions.

This is despite the fact there may be some in the ANC who realise that they have taken it a bit too far, that hostility to the Western industrial democracies comes at a cost which the ANC cannot afford, and the scrambling, spin-doctoring and schmoozing is not going to cut it. 」

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-07-naledi-pandor-is-treading-the-pik-botha-path-to-sas-diplomatic-oblivion/

#ForeignPolitics #BrenthurstFoundation #Pandor #NalediPandor

South African Foreign Minister Naledi #Pandor, who was at the court when the judges delivered their ruling, said she had been “hoping” for the provisional measures to include the order of a #ceasefire.

But Pandor also argued that she did not see how Israel could implement the measures directed by the #ICJ without a ceasefire.

ICJ rules Israel must prevent acts of #genocide in #Gaza: Key takeaways
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/26/icj-rules-israel-must-prevent-acts-of-genocide-in-gaza-key-takeaways