The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Polity.

In choosing to support Nicholas Maduro over elected Juan Guaidó as President of Venezuela, South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs once again displays the bankruptcy of our foreign policy by siding with possibly the world’s most autocratic, corrupt and regressive regime.

South Africa has, time after time, supported the indefensible, the military regime of Burma, the Chinese crackdown of Tibet, the atrocities of Robert Mugabe against the Zimbabweans, the Hamas organisation, recognised as a terrorist group, the Iran regime, which is sowing mayhem throughout the Middle East, and Turkey which is occupying half of Cyprus.

It failed to condemn the government of Bashar El Assad for killing half a million Syrians and using poison gas on its own citizens and welcomed war criminal Omar al-Bashir to South Africa, in defiance of the International Criminal Court which charged and found him guilty of genocide. In Sudan today, there are daily protests against al-Bashir, while the country drifts into anarchy.

Clearly the ‘new dawn’ promised by President Cyril Ramaphosa, is not going to have any effect on our foreign policy as we are too set in our anti-Western, pro-Chinese and Russian groove, contrived by our precursors like Ebrahim Ebrahim and Aziz Pahad. What is the fascination with Russia and Vladimir Putin that has resulted in former President Jacob Zuma’s and current Vice-President, David Mabuza’s innumerable visits? Putin is the world’s alpha dictator, bending the rules to get himself re-elected time after time.

Russia, already the world’s largest country by a long shot has annexed land in the Ukraine and occupied Crimea. It continues to agitate Georgia and the Ukraine. It dispenses with its opposition politicians and journalist and interferes with democratic elections across the globe. Are we prepared for the meddling role Russia will play in our elections, or are our politicians too blinded by their loyalty to Russia to care?

Lest we forget, Russia was prepared to bankrupt South Africa, by signing a R1-trillion-plus nuclear deal. What hold does Russia have, when it scarcely trades with South Africa?

Henrique Capriles, co-founder of the Primero Justicia party in 2000, together with Julio Borges and Leopoldo López in the 2012 elections almost succeeded in unseating then-President Hugo Chávez. After repeatedly being targeted in homophobic and anti-Semitic smear campaigns, Capriles was formally banned from politics in 2017. In 2015 López was found guilty of political incitement, arrested and sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison.

Although he was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize he remains under house arrest. Other political opponents of Maduro like Lilian Tintori received a 14-year prison sentence, while Maria Corina Machado has continued to be harassed. Yesterday another 850 people were arrested and at least 40 killed by security forces.

Maduro has bankrupted his country. Venezuela was the richest country in South America, sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, before Hugo Chávez started his socialist revolution. The currency has lost all its value and inflation runs at a million per cent. Venezuela ranks 168th on the corruption index published last week, making it even more corrupt than South Africa. 

He has created the biggest refugee problem in South America, with over 3-million Venezuelans crossing into Columbia and many more trying to emigrate daily. Citizens have lost their jobs, their dignity, and even their ability to feed themselves. This bully and autocrat fails to accept any responsibility for this calamitous situation and has the impudence to blame the USA and the West for the situation.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Lindiwe Sisulu’s recognition of this reprobate Maduro, is an absolute disgrace and is a sad reflection of the company she and other ministers keep!

Ben Levitas studied anthropology at Wits and wrote four books about the peoples and cultures of South Africa.  He is a graduate of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, London School of Economics (MSc) and Pretoria University (MBA). He founded Boston House College and various other industrial enterprises.