Standing up to American influence: South Africa's path to sovereignty
America may want South Africa to follow its lead and drive on its side of the road, but it is crucial for South Africa, and Africa as a whole, to chart its own course without yielding to pressure or intimidation.
US President Donald Trump has been issuing executive orders since he assumed office. These are quite consequential. Amongst these are the closure of USAID. He has not run out of ink, nor has he run out of targets as he furthers America’s agenda.
However, South Africa is suffering the consequences of being singled out as it sits between the tug of war of the West and BRICS alliances.
“South Africa is doing bad things,” he has argued, and South Africa consequently became the target of his ink and paper. Trump has signed an Executive Order and invited white Afrikaner landowners, who he claims are being “persecuted” to come to the US as refugees.
Trump’s Executive Order addresses the so-called Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa and he has ordered the US Homeland Security to “promote and prioritise humanitarian relief, including consideration of eligibility for admission and resettlement to the United States for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination”.
Quite interesting. This reminds me of the urban Afrikaner legend. It is about Jan van der Merwe whose acquaintance in New York invited him to come to New York for a visit. A postscript on the letter of invitation the acquaintance wrote read, “In the US we drive on the right side of the road. See you when you arrive at John F. Kennedy Airport.”
In weeks, Van der Merwe prepared for his trip and left Cape Town for New York. Upon arrival at JFK, he was received by his friend Afrikaner Dick. They exchanged pleasantries. "How was your trip?" Dick asks, and Van der Merwe replies, "The flight was superb, and I am pleased, but the trip from Cape Town to Johannesburg was very difficult." This interested Dick, and he said, "Tell me more." Van der Merwe continues. "The problem was that I continuously had to avoid on-coming traffic." Dick asked, “Why?” Van der Merwe said, "I had to practise driving on the right-hand side of the road."
The challenges that Trump has thrown on Ramaphosa’s administration are major, fundamental, and consequential. They centre, as it happens in the US already, on the tyranny of technology, money, and politics with dire and toxic consequences on governance.
The Thuma Mina, or send me, cannot be a Van Der Merwe bothered by practising how to drive on the right side of the road in South Africa in anticipation of American driving rules. The tyranny of technology, money, and politics requires seasoned minds to confront the hostile gesture from the US.
The question confronting South Africa is, who are you going to send? Do you send the “sakie sakie” who have been invited by Trump, do you send your diplomats, or do you send the Manthatisi of the Likonyela? Who is our Manthatisi of today? Manthatisi was a regent of the Batlokoa. She was widowed and had to protect the prince and fend off the tribes who were on the attack of her Tlokoa nation. She was fierce and most feared. So, in the dire hour, who is South Africa’s Manthatisi who has the dexterity of confronting a treacherous terrain of technology abuse against citizens, by rapacious deployment and leaching of money through unfettered politics?
Previous challenge
The nexus of Trump’s actions and the convergence of technology and money is the new challenge that we addressed and anticipated when we sat as a 25-person team that Ba Ki-moon asked to look into Data Revolution in 2014. Little did we know then that this convergence of technology facilitated evil would manifest in the US. But early signs emerged and have been manifest. These early manifestations represent a test case of who our Thuma Mina, a Manthatisi of our time, should be.One vested in deep moral judgement of what technology, money, and politics are
Standing up for what is right
Here is the torrid story of our Manthatisi who did good but lost everything.
As US-South Africa relations face mounting pressure under Trump's executive orders, South African entrepreneurs like Eldrid Jordaan demonstrate how the nation can maintain its sovereignty while standing up to global tech giants.
Jordaan, the CEO of Luxembourg-registered Supple, single-handedly took on the US giants and tells his story of moral and ethical rectitude in the face of rapacious deployment of technology, money, and politics.
South African entrepreneur Jordaan told me that the end of 2022 was grim. As a torrid year drew to a close, he was counting the million-dollar cost of giving world tech giant Meta a bloody nose; meanwhile, his mother’s health was fading and Jordaan himself ended up a patient in a Cape Town cardiac high-care unit. It was all too much for Jordaan. He resigned, sold his shares, and walked away from South African-based tech company GovTech – the outfit he had founded in 2015 and launched in 2018, with the help of R10 million ($570 000) from an angel investor.
It was “a sad moment,” he said.
Jordaan took on Meta and, subsequently, Facebook and won the case because he had the force of good in establishing GovTech. While he lost GovTech through the deployment of tyranny of technology and money from Meta and Facebook, he demonstrated how technology can be deployed to good use and put his right foot forward on the question of data sovereignty. This is the warrior that should repeat the battle and victory over Meta and Facebook. This is our Thuma Mina to Trump and Elon Musk.
Jordaan has a strong moral business acumen chiselled in the streets of Mitchell’s Plain. Jordaan commands respect and does not need to look over his shoulder.
In developing Seek.ai, an AI-powered conversational search engine purpose-built for Africa Jordaan entered these unchartered waters to advance Africa’s case as one rooted in Africa.
In being our Thuma Mina, he does not have to be road correct in the midst of many a Van der Merwe who drive on the right side of the road to practice for compliance when they finally land in the promised land.
Ultimately, Jordaan shows us that the right road for South Africa to charter is our own road no matter how uncomfortable that may be. We have to do what is right for our country.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of the Institute for Economic Justice at Wits, and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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