The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has launched a scathing attack on the United States Embassy in Pretoria, accusing it of running a “strange media festival” designed to ridicule and undermine South Africa’s constitutional sovereignty.
In a statement on Tuesday, the labour federation said the Embassy’s recent public campaign crosses all norms of acceptable diplomatic behaviour and amounts to bullying of a sovereign state.
“The United States Embassy’s strange media festival is clearly intended to ridicule and undermine South Africa’s hard-won constitutional sovereignty. Whilst the sober majority of South Africans will simply blue tick these as juvenile antics best ignored, they cross all norms of internationally acceptable behaviour for a diplomatic mission,” COSATU said.
The statement was issued by COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator Matthew Parks, who did not hold back in his criticism of US Ambassador.
Parks said it was ironic that Washington had expelled South Africa’s former Ambassador to the US for a single online comment, yet saw nothing wrong with its own Ambassador running a media campaign against his host government.
“It is ironic that the US State Department did not hesitate to expel South Africa’s former Ambassador to the US for a single online comment yet sees no wrong in their Ambassador running a media campaign against his host government,” Parks said.
The federation defended South Africa’s democratic credentials, pointing to its ranking of 27th in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, compared to the United States’ ranking of 64th. While affirming constitutionally enshrined rights to freedom of speech, COSATU said those rights should not be abused by a diplomatic mission to spread “blatantly false information about South Africa.”
Parks took aim at the US Embassy’s complaints about South Africa’s response to Washington’s so-called “Five Asks”.
“The litany of complaints by the US Ambassador makes little sense and bears less relation to reality. The Ambassador complains that South Africa has not responded to the US’ Five Asks, then states that government’s response is wholly inadequate or a complete rejection of US demands, then meanders off to say that two of the Asks have been resolved, two are close to being concluded and one is a just a weird obsession with a song that the African National Congress led Alliance and most South Africans stopped singing in 1994 with the advent of democracy,” the statement read.
COSATU said South Africa would not be treated as a vassal state.
“South Africa is a sovereign member of the international community and a constitutional democracy, not some vassal state or an unruly bunch of natives who should be told what is good for them. The not-so-subtle threats to South Africa of further consequences must end. Bullying has not worked with Canada or Greenland amongst others; it will not work with South Africa,” Parks said.
The federation said the Embassy should return to internationally accepted diplomatic norms and engage government directly on resetting bilateral relations, rather than “tweeting inanities”.
“Matters of legislation, policies and budgets are the sole domain of the South African people and exercised through their democratically elected government. Tweeting inanities may be entertaining but does nothing to enhance relations,” COSATU said.
Parks also criticised the Embassy’s political associations, saying meeting with fringe, whites-only groupings who appear to miss apartheid does “immeasurable damage to the standing of the US in the eyes of ordinary South Africans who carry the scars of apartheid’s very real horrors.”
In a pointed suggestion, COSATU said if the Embassy wanted to understand crime, it should “visit a police station in a Black or Coloured township”, and if it wanted to understand the impact of US tariffs, it should “meet the Black, Coloured and White workers at Premier Group’s canning factories and neighbouring farms in Tulbagh who are on the verge of losing their jobs due to the punitive tariffs imposed upon South African exports to the US.”
The federation stressed that the Embassy’s antics do not reflect ordinary Americans who stood with the liberation struggle, and commended President Cyril Ramaphosa for what it called “mature and strategic patience” in handling deteriorating relations with Washington.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington have been strained over South Africa’s foreign policy positions, its Expropriation Act, and claims by the US administration about the treatment of Afrikaners.