The DA has condemned thedepartment of international relations and cooperation’s (Dirco) appealto the UN Security Council (UNSC) to convene and intervene in the US capture and prosecution of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and accused the ANC of misusing foreign policy for party political interests. DA spokesperson on international relations Ryan Smith said Dirco’s appeal smacked of “hypocrisy and contradiction” as the department failed to take a similar stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a scathing statement on Tuesday, the DA said this exposed the “politically selective and hypocritical means” in which the ANC conducts South Africa’s diplomatic relations on the international stage.
Smith said diplomacy cannot be built on contradictions and inconsistencies. “In the context of the situation in Venezuela, the ANC has again decided to pursue its entrenched party-political interests in our foreign policy by referring the US to the UNSC when no such appeal for intervention was made when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and was found guilty of human rights abuses for child trafficking.” Smith said it was wrong for Dirco to cite international law or make reference to refraining from “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”, or the fact that “military invasions against sovereign states yield only instability and deepen crisis” when it has shown “diplomatic cowardice by turning a blind eye to the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty by the Russian Federation”. This approach has rendered South Africa an inconsistent, unreliable and unserious player on the international stage.
There is no room for ambiguity or the interpretation of a violation of state sovereignty. Smith accused the ANC, the DA’s bigger partner in the government of national unity (GNU), of adopting a two-faced approach to the country’s foreign policy to protect its own party interests over the interests of South Africa. “This is a gross betrayal of the values and principles enshrined in the constitution.” Smith said his party strongly opposes the politicisation of Dirco to pursue party-political interests instead of pursuing foreign policy in the national interest. That principle applies equally to all international aggressors, Putin and the Russian Federation included.” Speaking for South Africa at the UNSC on Monday, Jonathan Passmoor, deputy permanent representative, placed emphasis on the premise that no nation could claim to be legally or morally superior to another, maintaining the principle of sovereign equality of all member states.
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