The Bashir visit and the Cuban
Five was a brilliant foreign policy move by South Africa and it was a clever
move to restore South Africa’s tainted image since the 2011 Libyan crisis.
South Africa, while a
non-permanent member on the United Nations Security Council, voted for
resolution 1973. Resolution 1973 was essentially to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya
during the Libyan chapter of the Arab-spring. This was essentially done to
protect civilians from aerial bombings and to enable NATO to deploy their troops.
When South Africa’s voted in favour of the resolution it took many African
states by surprise.
Ebrahim Rasool recently explained,
during a book launch in Cape Town, the immediate consequences of resolution
1973. Rasool at the time was the South African ambassador to the United States
of America (USA). He explained that soon after the resolution was adopted a
delegation of African leaders was unable to land their plane in Libya to negotiate
with Gaddafi to step down. Gaddafi was killed soon afterwards and South Africa’s
reputation as a defender of Africa’s interest received a massive blow.
In 2013 South Africa’s image was further
tarnished by a comment made by President Jacob Zuma. During the build up to the
2014 elections e-tols overshadowed the ANC’s Gauteng campaign. Hence, during the
ANC’s 2013 Manifesto Forum President Zuma said the following: "We can't
think like Africans in Africa. It's not some national road in Malawi" (Ephraim,
22 October 2013). This did not sit well with most African states.
The events mentioned above left
South Africa in a sticky situation. As you would recall the ANC tried to use Mandela’s
funeral to repair the damage of President Zuma’s comment and South Africa’s
vote in favour of resolution 1973, but it was not as successful as the ANC hoped
for.
To make matters worse for South Africa
was the recent ‘xenophobic’[1]
attacks. The recent attacks caused further damage to South Africa’s reputation
on the African continent. It reached boiling point at the recent SADC
conference in Harare Zimbabwe. During the conference South Africa had to
respond to questions from its peers about the recent wave of ‘xenophobic’ attacks
in South Africa.
Therefore, the only way to
restore South Africa’s tainted image was to allow Al Bashir to attend the African
Union (AU) Summit in South Africa. This was a very anti-American move, since it
was American civil society organisations who accused Bashir of genocide (See
Mamdani’s book ‘Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror’). Bringing Al Bashir to South Africa was step
one. Step two was to bring the Cuban Five to South Africa, which purpose was
twofold. The first was to distract the general South African public from Bashir’s
visit and the second was to repair South Africa’s tainted image on the
continent. This was a clever move because South Africa knew since Cuba
supported the independence movement and that most of those independence leaders
are still in power they would forgive South Africa for resolution 1973.
The South African public like to
overreact, but they do not know extend of the damage they caused with the
recent ‘xenophobic’ attacks. The Cuban Five and Al Bashir was nothing but a
clever foreign policy move by South Africa. Let’s us appreciate it for what it
is.
