by MTHULISI SIBANDA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOUTH Africa’s crackdown against United States-headquartered technology companies, and the two countries swapping allegiances in the Russo-Ukrainian war, deepens the diplomatic rift between Pretoria and Washington.
Relations have been bad tempered since Donald Trump came to power in the United States in January.
No sooner had the veteran politician (aged 78) was sworn into power than his government, seen as hostile to the developing world, than Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14204, “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa,” over plans to reclaim land and address colonial imbalances.
The order stated that “it is US policy to not provide aid or assistance to South Africa and to promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation, as long as South Africa continues certain ‘unjust and immoral practices.”
The order cuts aid to SA, in the region of over $400 million (about R7.6 billion) annually.
South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, was defiant and accused the US of bullying it.
Now, the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa has embarked on a clampdown down on some US tech firms.
The South African Competition Commission has imposed up to R500 million annually, for three to five years as “provisional remedy” on Google, to compensate local news media.
The commission states that this is because of “imbalance in shared value while putting in place changes to search that will sustainably create shared value with the media through increases in referral traffic.”
It added, “This includes the removal of search bias in favour of foreign media and YouTube, and the promotion of vernacular and community media.”
Reports indicate that Meta Platforms, Microsoft and X, formerly Twitter, are among other social and technology companies that are under probe by the watchdog.
By coincidence, X belongs to South African-born Elon Musk, seen as the closest ally to Trump.
Musk heads president Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is an initiative aimed at reducing federal spending.
The move by South Africa is reminiscent of the tactics by the US against tech firms from rival powerhouse, China, at the height of the tensions between the latter two in recent years.
In a strange twist of events, regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war, the US seems to have warmed up to Russia while the South African government appears to be softening its stance towards Ukraine.
Ukraine was excluded from the recent US-Russia talks to end the war.
Now, Ramaphosa has invited his counterpart, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to a state visit after an apparently cordial phone call between the pair.
“I welcome the constructive engagement I had with President Zelensky. I look forward to hosting him in South Africa soon for a state visit,” Ramaphosa stated.
Zelensky has been quoted after the call as saying, “We all hope to achieve a just and lasting peace this year.”
On the contrary, Trump has called Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ in a public war of words.
The previous US administration of Joe Biden was openly pro-Ukraine and against Russian military operations sparked by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansionism towards eastern Russia.
South Africa on the other hand claimed neutrality but critics accused it of siding with Russia, because of links to the Eurasian country and their membership of the BRICS bloc, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
– CAJ News