While relations between South Africa and the United States (US) are balanced on a knife-edge, the DA’s chief strategist, Ryan Coetzee, fanned the flames of the ANC’s anti-American sentiments by sharply criticising the US and Western values in general.
In response to an important speech by the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on 7 October 2026 at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, Coetzee posted on X that the political tradition represented by leaders such as Rubio is “the wrong one” and that it “needs to be defeated again and again and again”.
This needless onslaught is shocking, reckless and extremely damaging to South Africa’s international relations – particularly with the US.
In his speech, Rubio emphasised the historical foundations of democracy and freedom stemming from ancient Greece. He implored the West to “rediscover the virtues, the courage and the strength” to defend Western civilisation, because it is worth protecting.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) wholeheartedly concurs, and finds it alarming that someone acting as the DA’s most important strategist, guide and coordinator of DA ministers in the Government of National Unity (GNU) harbours the same anti-American sentiments and hostility towards the Trump administration as the ANC.
While South African businesses, the agricultural sector and ordinary citizens are paying the price for the ANC’s alienation of Western partners, the DA’s top strategist opts to add fuel to the fire by lashing out at the key leaders of South Africa’s most important economic partners.
The DA cannot sit on the fence regarding this matter. The party should clearly state whether it endorses Coetzee’s remarks and views, seeing as he is regarded as one of the major opinion-formers in the party. If the DA does not agree with Coetzee, he should be summarily dismissed.
It is alarming and significant that so far, the DA has not responded to Coetzee’s statements of its own accord.
If the DA truly is committed to restoring South Africa’s international relations and protecting the economy, it will not allow those in its inner circle to make such reckless remarks.
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