South Africa’s strained relationship with the United States has suffered another blow. The world’s biggest economy is reportedly cutting military ties with South Africa and expelling its military attaché.
According to the Sunday Times, the US has cut military assistance and cooperation with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
The paper cited a memo dated March 13 from the US State Department to Aaron Harding, the CFO of America’s Defense Security Co-operation Agency (DCSA).
It states that, per the executive order signed by US President Donald Trump, all foreign aid and assistance offered to South Africa will be suspended.
It also states that any South African military personnel in the US for training should be sent back to South Africa as soon as possible.
This letter also supersedes the recent exception approved for foreign military financing students, globally.
The State Department requested that the guidance be disseminated across the Department of Defence and programme managers to ensure that the direction is met ASAP.
Former DA shadow Minister of Defence Kobus Marais said that while South Africa does not rely on the US for its defence capabilities, any drastic change will negatively impact its capabilities.
He said the country’s relationship with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and the training of military staff will be negatively affected.
In a further blow, Afrikaans publication Rapport reports that the US has given South Africa’s military attaché Brigadier Gen. Richard Maponyane the boot.
Maponyane and his assistants have reportedly been told they are no longer welcome in the United States, with the threat of targetted sanctions against specific individuals in South Africa now looming.
South Africa’s US Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was also recently kicked out of the country after he made comments against US President Donald Trump, accusing him of leading a global white supremacy movement.
Frosty relationships
The latest news marks another escalation in tensions between South Africa and the world’s largest economy following Trump’s return to the Whitehouse earlier this year.
It is speculated that the US is trying to make an example of South Africa for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with Trump a close ally of Israel.
This comes despite South Africa’s case showing prima facie evidence of genocide in Gaza following Israel’s military bombardment of the area.
Another problem that has been flagged by the politicians in the states is South Africa’s close relationships with Iran, Russia, China and Hamas, which the US sees as its enemies.
South Africa’s relationship with the USA was already strained going into Trump’s term due to the nation’s non-aligned stance over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump recently also signed an executive order allowing Afrikaans South Africans to enter the US as refugees amid heavily disputed claims of a white genocide.
Trump also claimed that the recently signed Expropriation Act was targeting the land of South Africa’s white minority despite South Africa not expropriating any land over the last decade.
The US President also suspended all aid to South Africa, particularly the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funding, which could have a disastrous impact on thousands of South Africans.
Recent tensions also saw Secretaries of the Treasury and State both snubbing a meeting with G20 members in South Africa. The G20 summit is being hosted in South Africa later this year.
South Africa could soon feel economic pressure as its access to the African Growth & Opportunities Act (AGOA) will likely be revoked, losing duty-free trade access with the US.
Thousands of South African goods enter the US duty-free under AGOA and its so-called Generalized System of Preferences.
Although South Africa’s Department of Trade, Industry and Competition is looking to secure its AGOA position, it is preparing a bilateral agreement that would be used in the event that it’s revoked.
Credit BusinessTech
