MCEBISI NDLETYANA | Trump’s South Africa fixation has deeper roots

America’s president, Donald Trump, is unrelenting. Congress has just approved the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) to 2028, allowing African countries, including South Africa, relatively easy entry to the US market.

Trump signed it off, despite earlier indications that the White House was not keen on retaining South Africa as one of the beneficiaries. It now turns out that one shouldn’t read too much into this country’s retention in Agoa.

Trump is still on a hostile footing. Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, has just announced his government’s intention to impose travel restrictions on South African officials who are responsible for the so-called reverse racism in South Africa. Whether the threat eventually materialises is something else.

What is clear, though — at least for now — is that Trump remains belligerent towards ANC government leaders and the country’s laws on racial redress.

Most analysts view Trump’s stance as typical brinkmanship. A less palatable description is that it’s a shakedown. Trump is known for shakedowns. One of America’s prominent performing arts venues, the John F Kennedy Centre in the country’s capital, is the latest victim. Trump refuses to release funds for the refurbishment of the centre unless the place is renamed to include him. Not only that, but his name should be placed above that of Kennedy — the man who urged America to be bold in its scientific endeavours, leading to the country’s first foray to the moon.

Perhaps one shouldn’t be entirely surprised at Trump’s attempts at self-glorification. Make America Great Again is no different. In the case of the Kennedy Centre, Trump has simply substituted national interests with personal interests. He doesn’t see much of a difference.

The US is engaged in an unnecessary war against Iran because Trump thought he’d make history. He’s desperate to be recorded as a historical, transformative figure. With glory in mind, Trump did not heed the lessons of previous presidents that the US had better success containing Iran than obliterating it. America, and the rest of the world, is now paying the price purely on account of vanity.

Trump’s demands on the South African government are not simply a shakedown; they also reflect a historical, ideological bond

Thabo Mbeki, the second president of democratic South Africa, counsels us, however, that in the case of our own country, Trump’s stance is not just about conceit. In a lengthy paper, titled “The United States of America and Future of Afrikaners in South Africa”, Mbeki ascribes Trump’s attack on the country’s racial redress — on behalf of the Afrikaner right wing — to a shared history and an unresolved national question. The latter relates to belonging, or citizenship, and the rights that should be accorded to the country’s various citizenries.

With their origins as settler colonies, both the US and South Africa were founded on violence and justified discrimination through bigotry. Racial supremacy was a state ideology, spread not only through schools but also in the church. There was broader societal mobilisation, whose success, over decades in South Africa — and for more than a century in the US — showed in the election of openly racist politicians and the popular endorsement of discriminatory policies. Natives and African Americans, who were shipped over as slaves, were victims of immeasurable horrors.

While widely documented and visible in lived experience, both countries, Mbeki reminds us, have been evasive about talking about the past and providing reparations. Instead of admitting to the savagery of their past policies, they insist that the past should be forgotten and cry reverse racism.

South Africa’s Afrikaner right wing and Trump, therefore, are brethren. They share more than just pigmentation. They’re bound by an ideology of racist supremacy that goes back to the settler colonies. Trump’s demands on the South African government, therefore, are not simply a shakedown. They also reflect a historical, ideological bond. Trump believes that no injustice was ever done against South Africa’s black folk, and that Afrikaners have simply become victims of racism.

Having laid out all that the Afrikaner right wing has been doing — including those who occupy seats in parliament and government — Mbeki labels them counter-revolutionaries. The FF Plus, which has been making trips to Washington to enlist Trump’s help to reverse racial redress, is part of the counter-revolution. This highlights the contradictions within the government of national unity. It not only contains but has also given prominence to elements that seek to unravel the constitutional foundations of South Africa’s democracy.

This places Mbeki’s party, the ANC, in a quandary: the party purports to fight the counter-revolution while it has elevated its elements to a position of national prominence, allowing for the possibility to expand even further. Today, black people are standing as FF Plus candidates for the coming local elections.

• Ndletyana is professor of political studies at the University of Johannesburg