EFF leader Julius Malema challenged President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday to spell out what his plans are to ensure South Africa was not bullied by the US under President Donald Trump.
During his State of the Nation Address (SONA), Ramaphosa made a declaration that Pretoria would not be bullied after Trump threatened funding cuts on HIV/Aids programmes for the benefit of South Africans.
On Friday, Trump issued executive orders which summarily cut the USAID funding to South Africa and he also afforded white Afrikaners priority status to seek refuge in the US as the impasse over SA’s expropriation policy escalated.
Speaking during the first day of debate on the SONA on Tuesday, Malema agreed with Ramaphosa that South Africa should not be bullied.
“You fail to tell us what you are going to do about it. It is not enough to simple say we must not be bullied. You must tell us what action you will take when you respond on Thursday,” he said.
Malema also conceded that South Africa was not attacked by the Trump administration because Ramaphosa ‘had done anything wrong’.
“They are attacking us because of our stance on Israel… We say to you, do not be misled by people who say you are under siege because of expropriation, which is meaningless.”
MK Party parliamentary leader John Hlophe said the recent bullying tactics by the US were a clarion call to South Africa to deepen its relations with BRICS countries.
Hlophe said the did ‘not agree with Trump and his promotion of white supremacists who claim they were facing genocide in South Africa’.
“There is no genocide or threat of genocide in South Africa. There are, however, legitimate cries of historically and presently oppressed black majority for the return of the land and the wealth to ownership and control of the people as a whole,” he said.
Hlophe also said South Africa has an obligation to defend her sovereignty and territorial integrity, which should include protection of all African countries, making reference to the country’s role in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where 14 soldiers were killed in clashes with M23 rebels.
He called for the country not to surrender the DRC to the M23 rebels saying this would cause destabilisation in the whole of east Africa.
“We cannot and we should never surrender DRC,” he said.
Hlophe, who claimed to present the “real” SONA, said Ramaphosa had made many commitments and promises that were never fulfilled throughout his tenure.
DA leader John Steenhuisen used the SONA debate to restate why his party was part of the Government of the National Unity (GNU), which is to block the EFF and MK from power and to turn South Africa’s economy around.
“South Africa today is immeasurably better for having the DA in government. We will continue to fight inside this government for more growth, and for more jobs, and to drive the reforms that we so desperately need,” Steenhuisen said.
He warned about a foreign policy that puts ideological solidarity ahead of the life chances of desperate South Africans.
Steenhuisen said the GNU has failed to respond with the urgency and determination required to make a clean break with the past, and start on a bold new path to success.
“Having made ourselves weak, we confront a new threat – the threat of US tariff barriers, being kicked out of AGOA, and possibly even a sanctions regime driven by an administration that will put America’s interests ahead of ours – and make no mistake about that,” he said.
IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa said his party entered the 2024 elections on a mission to rebuild South Africa.
“The GNU must therefore be applauded, for it is committed to building a capable, ethical and developmental state, comprising of ethical, skilled and properly qualified public servants,” Hlabisa said.
He said the GNU will ensure that the commitments Ramaphosa made to the nation do not become empty promises, but a lived reality.
“The focus on new infrastructure development is also welcomed, but it must be accompanied by maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure,” Hlabisa said.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald declared his party’s commitment to restore and rebuild South Africa.
He said the constitution declared that the country belonged to all who lived in it and it is united in diversity.
“The Afrikaner is part of that diversity and we want to build South Africa,” he said before stating in Afrikaans that he would continue living in South Africa.
“We are here to restore and rebuild. If we want to solve problems of South Africa, we must look at the inconvenient truth of what is happening in South Africa,” he said before stating that the expropriation of land without compensation would not address the land question as beneficiaries of land reform preferred financial compensation to land redistribution.