Wednesday’s bilateral meeting between South Africa and the US in the Oval Office was nothing less than a letdown for our country. The message from Trump and his administration is clear: The ANC and South Africa are no longer the world’s blue-eyed child and beacon of hope – shape up or ship out.
“Of course, yesterday’s intense confrontation could have easily been avoided if South Africa and its government chose to pursue sound, market-friendly economic policies that grew our economy and created much needed jobs. Farm murders, just like any other crime, are a symptom of a declining economy that exacerbates high unemployment, a weakened justice system that cannot curb hateful political rhetoric, as well as government corruption and maladministration that hampers effective service delivery such as a capable police force,” says Bafana Modise, Spokesperson for SAFI.
There is no way to certainly predict in what direction South Africa’s relationship with the US is heading, but for the sake of all South Africans, we trust that mature leadership will prevail from both sides to forge a genuine reset in relations.
Modise added that “the rollocaster experience in our relations with the US since Trump’s return to the White House has only made a simple truth more glaringly obvious; while the US is a critical trade partner for South Africa, our government needs to expand our economic relations with other countries across the world that share our values of constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and basic human rights.”
It is therefore bizarre that the South African government continues pursuing a weak case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) when the latter is well-positioned to be a steady economic partner for the former, and is the only constitutional democracy in the Middle East.
While South Africa’s unemployment rate sits at around 31.9%, Israel was able to successfully reduce its unemployment from 15% to 4% while under war. Israel is a healthy startup nation, managing to attract $12 billion in venture capital funding.
“Additionally, there are 450 multi-national companies with research and development centres such as IBM, Microsoft, Nvidia that operate across Israel while the country is a world-class leader in cyber security, with annual exports of more than 3 Billion USD. Further to this, The Israeli Cyber Security ecosystem is estimated to represent 7% of global sales and 8% of global investments, with over 250 remarkably advanced companies,” Modise qualified.
Where it concerns the high-tech and semiconductor industry, Israel is considered one of the world’s most innovative digital environments, home to over 800 innovative companies, while 250 are launched every year.
“Just like South Africa, Israel is a water-scarce country due to many challenges including changing weather patterns as well as poor maintenance of storage and reticulation infrastructure. In contrast, despite extreme water shortages, Israel has managed to source 85% of its drinking water from desalination plants. Where it concerns agriculture, Israeli-designed systems account for 50% of the world’s low-pressure irrigation systems, while 86% of its wastewater is reclaimed for agricultural needs – the highest percentage in the world. Further to this, Israeli companies have installed more than 350 desalination plants in nearly 40 countries, cutting desalination procedure costs by half,” says Modise.
It is therefore a no-brainer that South Africa should be building relations with Israel to learn more of their best practice solutions in a variety of sectors. South Africa has absolutely nothing to lose from adopting economic and innovative solutions from Israel that can turn our country into an economic powerhouse,as well as be sufficiently equipped to combat unemployment, restore safety and security, uphold the rule of law, and eradicate poverty. In fact, improving ties with Israel will improve South Africa’s ties with the states.
This is exactly why SAFI is proudly hosting the Patriotic Alliance for a best practice study tour in Israel, so key lessons in building a resilient economy and attracting investment can be brought back to South Africa for implementation.
“The resetting of relations with the US remains an opportunity to reset relations with the rest of the world. All South Africans are well positioned to benefit from improved co-operation that can boost economic growth and create jobs for all,” Modise concluded.
