Patrick Bond has written an article for Pambazuka News asking, “is Pretoria a destructive sub-imperialist power?”
This was partially prompted by the Zambian vice president Guy Scott saying that he dislikes “South Africa for the same reason that Latin Americans dislike the United States” and also by two Daily Maverick columns, one by Brooks Spector and the other by Sisonke Msimang.
Read Bond’s thoughts on the matter:
Thanks are due to the brutally-frank Zambian vice president Guy Scott who last week pronounced, ‘I dislike South Africa for the same reason that Latin Americans dislike the United States’, and to our own president Jacob Zuma for forcing a long-overdue debate, just as the World Economic Forum Africa summit opens in Cape Town: is Pretoria a destructive sub-imperialist power?
Two positions immediately hardened on Monday at the spiky, must-read ezine Daily Maverick, as Zuma declared the need for a ‘decisive intervention: an African Standby Force for rapid deployment in crisis areas.’ One stance – that of veteran US State Department official and now DM columnist Brooks Spector – encourages the extension of Pretoria’s power footprint for the sake of economic self-interest; the other – by health and human rights activist Sisonke Msimang – favours the revival of a Mandela-era rhetorical passion for continental human rights.
Book details
- Politics of Climate Justice: Paralysis Above, Movement Below by Patrick Bond
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EAN: 9781869142216
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