While the United States mulls sanctions against South Africa, senior ANC KwaZulu-Natal leader, Mike Mabuyakhulu, says South Africa is ready for it.
“When we decided to take Israel to the International Court of Justice we knew what was going to follow – that friends of the Israeli apartheid state would isolate us and that is what’s happening now. Yes we will suffer the consequences but we are prepared because we are standing up for a just cause,” Mabuyakhulu told a gathering in Durban on Monday evening.
Attendees turned up to welcome a senior Palestinian delegation to the city. They included members of Fatah, the second largest party in the Palestinian Legislature and Fatah Secretary General, Jibril Rajoub.
Mabuyakhulu’s comments comes amid the passing of a bill by the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The bill is aimed at reviewing its relationship between the US and South Africa and possible sanctions against South Africa for policies which the US disagrees with.
These include South Africa’s position on the Israel/Gaza war and South Africa’s expropriation bill. The Trump administration has misinterpreted the bill as allowing the seizure of white owned, Afrikaner agricultural land without compensation.
As a further consequence, South Africa also faces the wrath of Trump’s tariff war on the world – with a potential 30% tariff on goods to the US, bar a few exceptions like key South African minerals like gold, platinum, coal, manganese and chrome.
The bill will still need to go through further legal hoops and a vote in the house of Representatives before it could become law and binding. There’s mixed predictions so far on what the outcome will be, with most political analysts predicting it will not muster enough votes to succeed. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has reacted with calm to the looming threat, saying he is ‘hopeful’ of a solution to avert a crisis.
But, Mabuyakhulu is less diplomatic, saying the ANC, and South Africa, did not fear the consequences of standing with Palestine.
“We do not fear because we stand for the right cause. We stand tall as a nation proud of its own freedoms. In the words of tata Madiba our friends are our friends and your enemies cannot be our enemies. We shall stand with Palestine at all times, through thick and thin,” he said.
