The South African establishment - ANC, DA, Parliamentarians and particularly commentators' and media's - reaction to Trump's suspension of aid to South Africa should be puzzling to anyone who is fixed in reality. Anyone who works in the NGO sector knows funding is not guaranteed and they are not entitled to it.
But to Trump, their reaction has been outrage, of "how dare he!", and as Rebecca Davis writes in Daily Maverick, "Trump se moer"!, quoting Parliamentarians' reaction.
I worked for an NGO. The Western Cape Government funded us almost one sixth of the total budget. One year, out of the blue, just before our financial year end, they wrote funding would not be renewed the following year because our mission no longer met their funding requirements. It was untrue. We had reserves to cover perhaps one to two years. Fortunately, our director and fundraiser met their people (including at some time then premier Helen Zille) and the misunderstanding was resolved. Funding continued.
The point is they were difficult because they could.We politely told them our mission was unchanged and within their requirements. But anyway promised to work even more closely with them to ensure it did.
We didn't show them the middle finger, tell them to fuck off and you moer, as Davis, parliamentarians, "patriotic" South Africans and media are doing to Trump. Remember what happened to Politicsweb when it politely but defiantly gave the middle finger to a major donor.
But SA's leftwing commentariat live in an alternate reality with eternal chip-on-shoulder, self-pity, entitlement, naivete, ignorance and hubris vie with each other, depending on the situation. With Trump's decision, it's all these.
His executive order on Friday immediately followed Ramaphosa, the left's venal and dire president (like all ANC it must be said), at SONA telling Trump and US "we will not be bullied". (Cause and effect.) To Ramaphosa's address the left went wild. In an article earlier Stephen Grootes, a DM columnist, had wished for Ramaphosa to stand up to the bully (Trump). And he did! How great is SA, a shining light to oppressed peoples of the world (except citizens of "friends" China, Russia, Iran, etc)!
Principled though this position was on the surface - I'm guessing it didn't originate with Ramaphosa, though, because he avoids conflict at all cost, but ANC hardliners - it lacked foreign policy sophistication. Ignorance really. Even China, EU and world leaders tread warily around Trump and US.
But Ramaphosa and ANC, who never met a dictator they didn't like and would never tell them off, stuck it to Trump and "co-president" Musk. And look what happened. Now Parliament is doing it again and the media cannot contain their glee.
Trump is capricious and vindictive. He's thrown the rules of diplomacy and governance away. He's taking revenge against US government officials, Biden and Blinken included. Even without that, SA's dire president (who is so bad he lost the election for his party) is not his peer to bluster nonsense like "we will not be bullied". Even Rwandan president Paul Kagame is not intimidated by Ramaphosa.
The events of the past couple of weeks show how out of touch with reality the left (and even DA) are. They respond with entitlement and blaming others for the worldwide suspension and curtailment of US foreign aid. No thought for the millions of USAID's millions of other clients around the world and USAID's dedicated workers themselves who face sidelining and retrenchment. Selfish, solipsistic South Africans. Note I'm not talking about SA NGOs affected, but the commentariat, most of whom don't know what deprivation is and only write about it.
To Trump's suspension of aid partly because of the Expropriation Act, which the left support wholeheartedly despite its manifest defects, they blame and shame and insult AfriForum, who is given too much credit for Trump's decision, and Trump himself. Continue on this path and he, to spite SA and because he can, might do worse - cancel AGOA, tariffs, travel bans. Will the left, and SA, be cheering then?
The mainstream media has always been nauseatingly sycophantic towards the ANC. The decline until pre-2024 election was reversed with Ramaphoria 2.0. Balanced news and opinion without the left populism is a casualty in the fallout from the Expropriation Act.
Comments
Post a Comment