When it comes to its cold wars against the East, not taking a side is not good enough for the US – and the threat of intervention is never far away, write MANDLA J RADEBE and VIJAY PRASHA

On June 9 2023, four senior members of the US Congress — two Democrats (Gregory Meeks and Chris Coons) and two Republicans (James Risch and Michael McCaul) — wrote a letter to high officials of the administration of US President Joe Biden.

The letter was about an annual forum to be held later this year in South Africa that is focused on increased trade between sub-Saharan African countries and the US. It called upon South Africa to openly come out against Russia or else face the consequences of cuts in US-South Africa trade.

The US lawmakers released the letter two days before a US-Africa Business Summit was held in Gaborone, Botswana, under the auspices of the Corporate Council of Africa, a business association set up in 1993 for businesses in the US that wish to trade with Africa.

Apart from the president of Botswana, the US-Africa Business Summit was attended by heads of state of Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The letter was designed to put pressure not only on the Biden administration but on the African governments to — in turn — pressure South Africa so as not to damage their trade relations with the corporate sector in the US.

South Africa’s stand on Ukraine

In August 2022, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Africa to urge the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa to condemn the Russian operations in Ukraine and to launch yet another US initiative to counter what it sees as Chinese influence on the continent.

At a press conference in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital, Blinken was treated to some straight talk from Ramaphosa’s foreign minister, the six-time cabinet member Naledi Pandor.

The US House of Representatives passed a Bill in April 2022 called the Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act (the main sponsor of that was Congressman Meeks, who signed the recent letter).

Pandor reflected on that legislation and said that her government found it to be “a most unfortunate Bill.”

“From some of our partners in Europe and elsewhere,” Pandor told the press while sitting beside Blinken, “there has been a sense of patronising bullying — you choose this or else.”

Despite immense pressure on the government of South Africa, it has not buckled from its position of keeping all channels of diplomacy and commerce open and of joining the various opportunities to bring peace to Ukraine.