President Cyril Ramaphosa and a small clique of foreign left-wing activists have hit back at the United States government in prestigious international affairs publication Foreign Policy. The government has also initiated legal attacks on American tech companies, attempting to extract funds for local media companies.

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Undiplomatic

In the FP article, they accused Israel of violating international law in Gaza, and eroding the integrity of the United Nations Charter, while comparing the state to that of aprtheid-era South Africa. They touted their recent efforts to prosecute Israel for genocide in the the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court (ICC), while attacking President Trump's proposal to annex Gaza and deport Palestinians if neighbouring nations cannot come to a common alternative resolution.

In September 2024, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution obligating states to ensure accountability for violations of international law. In response, nations from the "Hague Group" (Belize, Bolivia, Chileor Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa), committing to prosecute Israeli leaders, block arms shipments, and prevent the use of their ports for military supplies to Israel.

Today, the 27th of February saw the release of an interview with Joel Pollack on BizNews, in which the prospective candidate for American ambassador to South Africa responded to the article, providing harsh criticism of the government for its arrogant and unrealistic stance:

‍"The article came out in the context of ongoing efforts to repair the relationship between the two governments [...] it’s actually given the Trump administration an excuse if it needed one to formally kick South Africa out of AGOA and also to consider sanctions against Ramaphosa and the ANC."

But at a recent Goldman Sachs event, Ramaphosa has redoubled on the tough talk, almost as if the United States is a mere gnat, rather than a 900lb gorilla:

"We don’t want to go and explain ourselves[...] We want to go and do a meaningful deal with the United States on a whole range of issues, and the signals that we’re getting are that we need to enable the development of that process to happen - it’s inevitable that we will get together and do a deal. [...] We had decided that it’s not best to have a knee-jerk reaction to all this. We wanted to let the dust settle."

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Trade war

And yet, the government has also struck back at the United States economically, launching anti-trust cases against the major American tech and social media companies through the Competition Commission (CC), in a strategy that can only be described as an attempt at rent-seeking extortion.

The CC has accused Google of anti-competitive practices, recommending the tech giant pay local media outlets between 300 million and 500 million rand ($16.4m–$27.3m) annually for three to five years. The watchdog claims Google's algorithms favor global news over local and community media, eroding the South African media landscape over 14 years.

It is unclear which news outlets would benefit from this hypothetical endowment, but with all main media outlets in SA taking a sycophantic pro-government position on all policy issues, it is likely that whoever benefits will be selected from among those (and I think it would be a sure bet that the Indy wouldn't be on that list).

Google denies the allegations, citing its contributions of 350 million rand in referral traffic value in 2023 while earning less than 19 million rand from related ads. Meta and X are also under scrutiny, with recommendations to stop deprioritizing South African news posts and improve revenue-sharing mechanisms for local publishers. If companies fail to comply within six months of the final report (expected later this year), a 5-10% digital advertising levy may be imposed.

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Opposition?

The current tensions have seen the former opposition party the Democratic Alliance align with the ANC, and defend BEE, expropriative land reform, and even attack the United States for their criticism. Leaders of the DA such as Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen have historically been extremely critical of Donald Trump, and aligned with the Democratic Party of the United States despite its corruption, abuse of powers and radical far-left racial ideology. Helen Zille has even entertained conspiracy theories about Russian control and election interference.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde took the side of the ANC-led national government in his recent State of the Province speech on Wednesday night, criticising the new American administration pre-emptively for the widely-spoken-of possibility of sanctions: "International markets are in distress and elections are resulting in massive policy shifts across the world. Aid is being cut and free trade is being replaced by trade barriers and tariffs."

A recent visit to the United States by Solidariteit and AfriForum has received widespread opprobrium from government-aligned media outlets, who have attacked the Afrikaner mutual aid associations and accused them of "disinformation" (lying) and treason.

John Steenhuisen recently attacked them for criticising the ANC's land reform process, defending land reform as a necessary remedy to racial inequality, while the party maintained their criticism of the Expropriation Act on technical grounds. He also attacked critics of his implementation of ANC racial policies in agriculture, while his department recently digitally edited a press photo to remove government-critical leader of agricultural union SAAI, Theo de Jager.

Larger, more corporate-focused agricultural unions such as AgriSA have continued to defend the ANC's policies, but this has caused a split in their membership, as Vrystaat Landbou has launched a poll of its members to determine whether they will be leaving the organisation.

Ernst Roets, recently retired from the top Solidariteit leadership, has recorded an interview with Tucker Carlson, whose podcast is watched avidly by members of the Trump administration, and in a social media post announcing the coming release of this interview, Roets called the South African system fundamentally unsustainable, and called for it to be broken up. When the podcast is released, it is expected to make significant waves.

Whether the Cape independence movement will be able to capitalise on current rifts in the body politic remains to be seen, with the new leadership of the VF+ choosing to remain in the ANC-led coalition, and the Referendum Party (RP) and Cape Independence Party (CIP) both remaining low on funding.

With ANC approval falling to 32%, and the DA remaining steady despite general displeasure with their performance in government, it seems the public are still looking for a viable electoral opposition.

But time is running out, and what the clash with the United States may bring remains to be seen, but it is, to put it mildly, unlikely to be inconsequential.