The United States is wasting its time with the ANC

Freedom Front Plus leader Corne Mulder said that it was predictable that the ANC would ignore the United States’ demands to improve relations.

He shared his views during an interview with Alec Hogg on the Biznews podcast, where he discussed South Africa’s relationship with the United States.

This relationship has deteriorated significantly over the last few years, and the United States has made five requests to reset relations. There are:

• Classify farm attacks and violence against rural communities as a priority crime.

• President Cyril Ramaphosa must publicly condemn the ‘Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer’ chant.

• Reject policies that enable Expropriation Without Compensation (EWC).

• Create alternatives, such as equity-equivalent investment programs (EEIPs), to meet Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) ownership requirements.

• The South African government should not interfere with the processing of Afrikaner refugees.

South Africa has not addressed any of these issues and has doubled down on many of them, including black economic empowerment. Mulder said that was predictable.

“The United States seriously thought that they could engage the ANC government and hold successful negotiations and discussions,” he said.

“I could have told them that they were wasting their time. These matters were conveyed 18 months ago, and they simply ignored them.”

He said that the United States has now reached the point where the ambassador has clearly stated that the time for talking is over.

“The United States wants action. They want decisions. From the US point of view, they didn’t get anything, and South Africa is just kicking the can down the road.”

Mulder suspects that the ANC’s strategy is to sit back and wait for the Trump administration’s term to expire, believing things will change after that.

They are making a vital mistake. These issues didn’t start under the Trump administration. They began during the Biden administration,” he said.

Another mistake the ANC is making is that they think that once Donald Trump’s term ends, a Democrat which is sympathetic towards South Africa will take over.

“That is simply not going to happen. They also need to account for other prominent US politicians, such as Vice President J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio,” he said.

“It could end up being a very different situation, and in the meantime, the ANC will continue to implode.”

ANC’s poor foreign policy

Mulder criticised the ANC’s foreign policy, saying that the antagonism towards the United States is costing South Africa billions.

“It is stupid from a policy perspective or from pronouncements from the ANC ministers to be in conflict with the world’s biggest economy,” he said.

He said that the United States wants to assist South Africa with billions of dollars in aid and investment.

However, the ANC’s antagonism towards the United States and hostile domestic policies prevent these investments.

Another challenge is the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is being reassessed by the United States.

Mulder warned that South Africa risks losing up to 500,000 jobs if it gets kicked out of the AGOA agreement.

This does not seem to concern the ANC, as it continues to antagonise the United States in its public statements.

The situation which arises is that South Africa and its citizens suffer due to the ANC’s ideological stance and its association with rogue nations.