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The South African government deserves more praise than it gets for a foreign policy that has sought to maintain old relationships with countries in the global north, even as it develops new relations with BRICS partners – and for its courage to act on its principles by charging Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Many years ago, when the US tried to bully South Africa into abandoning relationships with Cuba, Palestine, and Libya, Nelson Mandela famously dug in his heels, saying that South Africa was entitled to choose its own friends. South Africa had no intention of abandoning nations that had provided critical support for the anti-apartheid movement when Western nations had not, he said.

Because of Mandela’s stature, even though it didn’t necessarily align with his views, the West backed down. More than 30 years later, with each passing day, it becomes clearer that there is no place for choosing one’s own friends in Donald Trump’s binary view of the world. 

South Africa’s adherence to the principles of equality and justice has already led to its exclusion from the G20, chaired by Trump this year, and, naturally, excludes it from the guest list of countries invited to serve Trump’s new world order on his “Board of Peace”. That’s not a bad thing.

The Board of Peace was initially introduced as a structure to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza. Notably, the people of Gaza and the West Bank, none of whom are represented on the Board, have continued to come under attack since the declaration of a ceasefire last October.

More recently, the Board has taken on the appearance of a new mini-United Nations, excluding nations unwilling to bow at Trump’s knee. 

Interestingly, Trump has invited some of the nations that have supported South Africa’s case of genocide at the ICJ to serve on his new structure, forcing them to choose between him and their principles. 

The US is the most powerful economy in the world. It is not a relationship that South Africa seeks to break. Pragmatically, however, the only way back into Trump’s good books would be for South Africa to renounce its membership of BRICS and its case against Israel at the ICJ. If that is the price of short-term friendship, it is too high and may require placing the relationship temporarily on ice.

Trump has three more years in office. He has created the power for himself to elect his successor as leader of his Board of Peace but doesn’t have the power to elect his successor in the White House.

In the meantime, if the US imposes tariffs that price some of its products out of the market, South Africa has little option but to find new short- and long-term global markets for these products.   

What South Africa mustn’t do is abandon its hard-earned values on diversity and inclusivity – or abandon the brutally treated victims of Israel’s genocide. It’s a tight rope that, besides the bungled messaging around the presence of Iran’s navy off Cape Town last week, the government is navigating with some skill.

Issued by Unite for Change Leadership Council Member and GOOD Secretary-General Brett Herron