OPINION: For a country that is guided by ubuntu, South Africa has a record of embarrassing international blunders.
A year ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa officially began his tenure as president of South Africa after the ANC, the party he led to the election in May 2019, secured a comfortable victory in one of the most highly contested polls post-1994.
Of course that fallout was followed by the country’s backroom attempt to withdraw from the ICC, without notifying Parliament. South Africa’s foreign policy under Zuma was so bad that an international relations lecturer — who teaches at an international university in Johannesburg — told me that he refused to teach the country’s foreign policy during those years. He was too confused about what the country stood for in terms of international co-operation.
At home, he played a crucial role in overseeing South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy in 1994 through his involvement as one of the negotiators. He also played a leading role in crafting South Africa’s progressive Constitution, which is admired the world over. Now, it seems as though Ramaphosa has been too preoccupied with rebuilding the country’s ailing economy — characterised by failing state-owned enterprises such as the national power generator Eskom and the national carrier, South African Airways — and is missing an opportunity to provide the much-needed foreign policy leadership on some of the burning global issues.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Jacob Zuma loses bid to appeal 'defamation tweet' ruling on HanekomThe Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed a bid by former president Jacob Zuma to appeal against a court ruling that found he had defamed former minister Derek Hanekom by calling him a “known enemy agent” on Twitter
Read more »
Jacob Zuma loses appeal bid against ruling about Derek Hanekom tweetHanekom took urgent legal action against Zuma after he referred to Hanekom as a ‘known enemy agent’ in a tweet in July 2019
Read more »
Jacob Zuma loses bid to appeal 'defamation tweet' ruling on HanekomThe Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed a bid by former president Jacob Zuma to appeal against a court ruling that found he had defamed former minister Derek Hanekom by calling him a “known enemy agent” on Twitter
Read more »
Court orders Zuma to apologise to HanekomThe Supreme Court Appeal has dismissed former president Jacob Zuma's bid to appeal a ruling that he had defamed former tourism minister Derek Hanekom.
Read more »
OPINIONISTA: Profit before wellbeing: British American Tobacco vs Nkosazana Dlamini ZumaBritish American Tobacco’s threat to challenge the Covid-19 tobacco ban in court is symbolic of the tyranny of the markets and corporate attempts to undermine democracy in pursuit of profit.
Read more »
'Today's judges just like those under apartheid' - Jacob Zuma attacks the judiciaryAccording to Zuma, the attitude of the judges towards him in the democratic dispensation is the “same” as that of the apartheid judiciary when he was a freedom fighter.
Read more »