South Africa Reports

🇿🇦🇷🇺🇮🇷 South Africa open to nuclear project bids from Russia or Iran, minister says

South Africa could turn to Russia or Iran to expand its civilian nuclear power capacity, a senior government minister said, a stance analysts say could deepen a rift with the United States and further delay the renewal of a strategic energy pact.

South Africa, which operates Africa's only nuclear power plant, Koeberg, plans to add 2,500 megawatts of new capacity to tackle electricity outages that have plagued the economy and to reduce emissions.

"We can't have a contract that says Iran or Russia must not bid, we can't have that condition," Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe, one of the government's leading proponents of expanding nuclear capacity, said.

Pretoria and Washington had been seeking to conclude after almost a decade of talks a new civilian nuclear pact, known as a Section 123 Agreement, a prerequisite for exporting U.S.-made nuclear fuel or equipment.

"The allegations made in the executive order can significantly complicate getting the agreement renewed," said Isabel Bosman, a nuclear energy researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

The previous 123 agreement, implemented in 1997, lapsed in December 2022.

Failure to secure a new deal could block South African power utility Eskom from sourcing reactor fuel from Westinghouse for Unit 1 at Koeberg, industry analysts say. Unit 2 is supplied by France's Framatome.

It may also hinder U.S. companies, such as the Bill Gates-backed TerraPower and ASP Isotopes from investing in South Africa during a global atomic renaissance, the analysts added.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-open-nuclear-project-bids-russia-or-iran-minister-says-2025-02-17/

🇺🇸🇿🇦 Why you can't blame AfriForum

One simple statistic explains all you need to know about why South Africa is being targeted by the United States

The entirety of South Africa’s voting history in the UNHRC/HCR, where it differs from consensus, has been in concert with two blocs – former communist hegemons and their present allies (Eastern alliance) and the African Group. The former is composed of Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Cuba, DPR Korea, Belarus, Myanmar and Venezuela.

Out of all the non-consensus motions South Africa voted in favour of, 89.6% were introduced by these countries. Of the human rights situations they either abstained from or voted against taking action in, 88.8% of these situations were caused by the same group of countries.

South Africa has often gone out of its way to protect friends and allies around the world, no matter how venal. In 2015, the ANC government gave shelter to Omar Bashir for the duration of the African Union Summit, despite Bashir being wanted for several crimes against humanity in his war on the people of Darfur, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, and rape, as well as three counts of genocide.

The reasons for this are quite clear – the allegiance between the ANC and the communist countries in the Cold War, which coincided closely with the duration of National Party rule in South Africa, was particularly strong, as South Africa’s government was overtly tolerated by the United States and its allies until the late 1970s, and covertly supported (with certain accompanying pressures to reform) until the late 1980s.

The ANC is also a Pan-Africanist organisation, and sees Africa as a whole as existing in opposition to the West, a victim of imperialism both in colonial and neocolonial terms, and seeks to promote African interests against those of the West. Its allies on the continent are viewed through the lens of a common struggle, leading to often weaselly-sounding slogans like “quiet diplomacy” masking (not-so) covert solidarity.

Israel in particular is remembered, not for their 1961 UNGA vote to sanction South Africa, but for their subsequently “embarrassingly good relations” in the following decades which has earned a special place on the ANC’s blacklist, and has been part of the motivation for comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa.

In Zimbabwe, the ANC utterly refused to countenance any countermeasures or sanctions against Mugabe’s violent landgrabs, rigged elections or ethnic cleansing of the Matabele. Under Thabo Mbeki’s stance of “quiet diplomacy”, there was no public censure. Mbeki opposed Zimbabwe’s removal from the Commonwealth of Nations, sidelined South African critics of Mugabe, refused to criticise vote rigging the 2002 and 2008parliamentary elections, supported the land grabs as “necessary”, and gave salutary honours to Robert Mugabe on the occasion of his state funeral in 2019.

https://www.capeindependent.com/article/why-you-cant-blame-afriforum

🇺🇳🇿🇦 UN backs SA’s Land Act as step to address racial land imbalance

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office in Geneva has described South Africa’s Land Expropriation Act as a critical step in addressing the country’s racially imbalanced land ownership.

https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/unhr-backs-sas-land-act-as-step-to-address-racial-land-imbalance/

🇿🇦🇺🇸 South Africa to Send 3 Delegations to the U.S. — But Whom Will They Meet?

At least three separate delegations of South Africans are planning to visit the U.S. after President Donald Trump’s criticism of their country’s Expropriation Act last week — but it is not clear whom they will meet in the new administration.

One [delegation] is being organized by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa; one is being arranged by the opposition Democratic Alliance; and another is being arranged by the trade union Solidarity, which tends to represent white and Afrikaans-speaking workers.

The first two delegations seem determined to explain to President Trump why he is wrong; the third seems to want to explain why he is right.

But aside from the lack of a common front, there is also another challenge: there may be no one in a position of responsibility who will meet with them.

President Trump is unlikely to do so, as is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who announced earlier this month that he will not attend a G20 meeting in South Africa next week over the country’s “anti-Americanism.”

South Africa’s leaders seem to believe that the focus should be persuasion behind closed doors in Washington rather than change to failing policies at home.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/02/12/south-africa-to-send-three-delegations-to-the-u-s-but-whom-will-they-meet/

🇺🇸🇿🇦 The United States Embassy in South Africa published a fact sheet addressing the human rights violations in South Africa.

A few key points:

▫️"The government of South Africa blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority descendants of settler groups."

▫️ "As long as South Africa [...] allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country."

▫️ It mentions South Africa's relationship with Hamas and Iran

▫️ "Years ago, the South African government disbanded volunteer forces defending rural farmers, turning a blind eye to the ensuing farm attacks."

https://za.usembassy.gov/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-addresses-human-rights-violations-in-south-africa/