Victim number one of SA’s support of Russia

By Dalien Steyn from the FF Plus

The rand was the first victim of the latest debacle in which heavy freight containers were reportedly loaded onto the Lady R in the dead of night at Simon’s Town.

Ever since, wild accusations have been made.

No-one knows whether it was guns and bombs, or assegais and shields of skin that changed hands in this sinister transaction. What is, however, clear is that America does not think it was particularly clever of the ANC to snub the US on behalf of South Africa and for the sake of comrade Vladimir Putin.

The rand’s value plummeted at such a breakneck speed that it gave new meaning to Newton’s Universal Law of Gravity.

With its recent floundering in explaining the Russian ship at the Simon’s Town Naval Base and the presence of a Russian freight aeroplane at the Waterkloof Air Force Base, the ANC government made it very clear that it is certainly not neutral with regard to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Despite its denials in this regard.

Whether you like America or think it is the biggest sublunar bully, the fact remains that it is South Africa’s second biggest trade partner.

In 2022, South Africa exported goods and services amounting to R177,89 billion to America.

One cannot help but wonder whether the ANC has a back-up plan to “pick up” the trade losses should America turn its back on us.

This is reminiscent of the brave undertaking by the then minister and current Deputy Secretary General of the ANC, Nomvula Mokonyane, who promised six years ago to “pick up” the rand again after Fitch and S&P had downgraded South Africa to junk status in 2017 and the rand’s value had subsequently also plummeted.

Thus far, she has not been able to pick up anything.

AGOA agreement: Possibly victim number two

The other victim of South Africa’s support of Russia could be its ongoing participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

AGOA allows certain Sub-Saharan countries to export their trade goods to America without paying import duty.

The AGOA agreement will be revised in 2025 and there exists a very real possibility that South Africa could be kicked out due to its violation of certain eligibility criteria.

Some of the eligibility criteria include, among other things: (in short)

1. A market-based economy that protects private property rights.
2. A system to combat corruption and bribery.
3. No involvement in activities which may undermine America’s national security or foreign policy interests.
4. No involvement in gross violations of internationally recognised human rights, or support of acts of international terrorism. Cooperation with international attempts to eradicate human rights abuses and terror activities.

In light of the above, various red flags are raised when one thinks of the ANC’s senseless support of skunk countries, the country’s appearance on the grey list, the ANC’s attempts to write expropriation without compensation into the law book, and its draconian labour legislation.

South Africa currently exports about 7 000 products, including many agricultural products, cars and steel, duty-free to America and it creates jobs for thousands of people.

Most of this will be lost if the country is kicked out of the AGOA agreement.

The ANC is clearly more than willing to sacrifice the country and South Africans’ wellbeing for the sake of Russia.

Ramaphosa undertakes to have Russia and Ukraine smoke the peace pipe

It would be a good idea for Cyril Ramaphosa to first research the shared and complex history between Russia and Ukraine before he tries to get the presidents of these two countries to smoke the peace pipe.

When reading the (much abridged) piece of history below, one cannot help but notice that the ANC government has taken some of its outdated ideological policy from the handbook of Joseph Stalin with its instructions on oppressing a certain group of people.

Holodomor of 1932–1933

Holodomor, a combination of the Ukrainian words for “famine” and to “usher in death”, differs significantly from any other famine in history caused by natural causes.

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union while Joseph Stalin was in power.

In 1929, as part of his plan to create a totally communist economy as quickly as possible, Stalin imposed collectivism, which replaced farms that were initially privately owned and run with large state-controlled collectives.

He wanted to transform the Ukrainian nation into his idea of a modern, poor and socialist nation, even if it meant physically annihilating large parts of the population.

Ukraine’s small and mostly subsistence farmers resisted in an attempt to protect their land and livelihoods.

Soviet officials drove these small farmers off their land using violence.

Ukraine was one of the largest grain producing states in the Soviet Union and was subject to higher grain quotas than the rest of the Soviet Union.

By the autumn of 1932, it was clear that the Ukrainian grain harvest was not going to meet the Soviet planners’ target of 60%.

There may still have been enough food for the Ukrainian small farmers to survive, but as punishment, Stalin ordered that the little they had must be seized.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian teachers and intellectuals were arrested, books written in the Ukrainian language were removed from schools and libraries, and local officials were instructed to stop using Ukrainian in correspondence. In short, it was total cultural annihilation.

As the famine intensified, many Ukrainians tried to flee to places with more food. Some of them died on their way there.

Others resorted to desperate measures in an attempt to stay alive. They killed and ate their pets, and consumed anything from flowers to leaves, bark and roots.

By the summer of 1933, some of the collective farms only had a third of their households still residing there while the prisons and labour camps were full.

With barely anyone left to cultivate crops, Stalin relocated Russian small farmers from other parts of the Soviet Union to Ukraine to address the shortage of labour.

Confronted with the prospect of an even greater food catastrophe, Stalin’s regime began to reduce its collections in the autumn of 1933.

Stalin’s cruel attempts to impose communism on Ukraine and put an end to nationalism claimed the lives of about 3,9 million Ukrainians, mainly due to starvation.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine became independent.

Holodomor, however, remains a painful part of Ukrainians’ shared identity, and makes it very clear why there is no love lost between these people and Russia.