South Africa policy critics say goodwill not enough

By Douglas Hamilton

JOHANNESBURG (Reuter): President Nelson Mandela was in Germany on Wednesday wooing Europe's economic powerhouse, but back home his government faced rising criticism that its foreign policy was at best ineffective, at worst an affront.

While Mandela's new democracy is the darling of the world, enjoying incomparably better standing than its apartheid predecessors, the perception is growing that it has little clout abroad because its policy is vague or misguided.

In a new gloves-off mode, the white-led National Party is laying into Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) for "embracing" Fidel Castro of Cuba and Muammar Qaddafi of Libya -- who strongly supported the ANC in its years of anti-apartheid struggle -- and for preparing to ditch Taiwan.

The National Party served notice earlier this month that it would quit the government of national unity at the end of June, to challenge the ANC in a "robust" opposition role.

In a televised debate with ANC deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad, National Party foreign affairs spokesman Boy Geldenhuys accused the ruling party of putting its own interests before those of the country.

He said he could understand a desire to reward loyal friends, but by embracing "so-called rogue countries" South Africa was "affronting our sources of investment" -- i.e. the United States and its western allies.

"Our impression...is that it is actually the policy of the ANC not to have a policy on foreign affairs. Because if you have a policy on foreign affairs then you can easily be pinned down," he said.

"Without having a policy, you have space to maneuver, you can have it both ways, you can have your cake and eat it."

Pahad rejected the charge. "The end of the Cold War means we can disagree with some of our best partners on certain issues," he said. "We are not in isolation over Cuba."

South Africa, a true democracy since Mandela came to power in all-race elections two years ago, was not called on to join any camp but to fight for its interests in "the global neighborhood", the deputy foreign minister said.

"Our major economic and trading partners are the European Union, followed by the United States and Japan...since the democratization of South Africa and our expansion into Asia, Asia has become our second biggest trading and investment partner, which has overtaken even the United States," he added.

"So we are not standing still."

On the issue of maintaining ties with Taiwan, or joining the majority of states in recognizing the Peoples Republic of China, Pahad was forced to concede that South Africa's current stand had appeared ambivalent.

While the National Party clearly favored standing by Taiwan, as Mandela himself had apparently pledged, Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo had told Chinese leaders in Beijing that Pretoria wanted to establish relations.

"What we need to do is to resolve this anomalous situation that South Africa has found itself in," Pahad said.

China's foreign minister, Qian Qichen, on Tuesday urged Pretoria to abandon Taipei and strike up ties with Beijing, saying it would enhance global peace and prosperity.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin had excluded South Africa from his current Africa tour because of the issue, Qichen said.

Foreign policy analyst Greg Mills agreed that by cozying up to anti-western leaders -- both Castro and Gaddafi are invited here for official visits -- South Africa had compounded uncertainty abroad.

Questions about the ANC's past ideological stance were generally forgotten in the euphoria of peaceful transition to majority rule, he wrote in Business Day newspaper.

"Since then, however, Pretoria's high-profile foreign policy moves have negatively affected our investment status."

On a recent visit to Libya, Nzo sided with Gaddafi over his refusal to hand over two suspects in the terrorist bombing of a Pan-Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, for trial in Britain.

Mills said South Africa had still wider problems.

Mandela, he said, was "probably the world's premier statesman", attracting attention and goodwill wherever he goes.

But Mandela did not convey firm, identifiable principles of foreign policy. "We have not so much a foreign policy as a foreign profile," said Mills, director of the Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg.

Lofty debate aside, South Africa's diplomatic embarrassment was compounded this week by criminal attacks.

The Lebanese charge d'affaires, robbed twice in two weeks, went home complaining that the government had failed to protect his mission, as guaranteed under the 1961 Vienna Conventions.

A Greek attache had his car hijacked at gunpoint, and Arab missions issued a collective bleat about the lack of security.

The complaints were clearly security-related rather than diplomatic, but ruffled feathers among the striped pants fraternity were a further, unwanted irritation to the foreign minister.