Hangzhou – China, 04/09/2016. Leaders of the BRICS (Credit: Beto Barata/PR)
Guest post by Matt Chancey
South Africa is back in the news, thanks to several recent posts by Elon Musk, Sec. of State Marco Rubio, and even President Trump on X criticizing that country’s new land “expropriation” law (translation: confiscation without compensation) and ongoing discrimination against the white “Afrikaner” minority.
On February 7th, President Trump signed an executive order cutting off all aid to South Africa and committing to assist persecuted Afrikaners to resettle to the United States.
This is an unprecedented and bold move by the president, and, while it is certainly good that more light is being shed on the racist discriminatory policies of the ANC-dominated government, Trump has a strategic opportunity to win big in that country and improve conditions for all South Africans while securing a greater economic position for America in all of Southern Africa.
President Trump desires to usher in a new Golden Age for America. This entails a radical overhaul of the Administrative State (which is currently taking place), but also changing America’s entire global posture.
Securing better trade deals and staying out of new wars would be a major victory for the American people, and Trump’s early successes with Central and South America, Mexico and Canada, and the Israel/Gaza ceasefire are lightning-fast accomplishments towards this end.
But America must also project a strong, positive image to the rest of the world, while welcoming them to partner and prosper with the robust energy and resources of the USA.
A serious competitor to America’s global economic reach is, of course, the BRICS alliance.
Originally named BRIC after its four original member states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), the organization was rebranded BRICS with the addition of South Africa in 2010.
While South Africa’s economy is a fraction of other BRICS nations, its membership is representative of many Southern African countries, whose growing populations, economic potential, and rich natural resources provide attractive trade opportunities for global partners.
After the first democratic elections in 1994 handed control of the government to the left-wing African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s government has been dominated by this party for the last 30 years.
As is typical of one-party states, the ANC allowed itself to be corrupted by kleptocratic party hacks and nepotistic imbeciles, devolving large swaths of this beautiful country from a First World economy and infrastructure into a crime-ridden, high unemployment, vandalized, economic hellscape.
Once a strong ally of an American-led West, the ANC-led South Africa chose instead to link arms with America’s competitors, like China and Russia. This is how South Africa made BRIC into BRICS.
But this all changed in 2024.
After decades of decline, South African voters finally had enough, and the ANC received only 40 percent of the national vote, forcing the party to entertain the previously unthinkable: a coalition government.
The ANC could have allied with openly Marxist groups, but chose instead to partner with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and some other small, centrist, and largely pro-west parties.
A government of national unity was formed, and the DA was awarded several key cabinet posts.
The DA’s center of political strength is the Western Cape, home to Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope, through which several million tons of global shipping traffic passes each day.
Western Cape voters have never given the ANC a majority, and most of the people want the province to distance itself from the central government as much as possible.
In fact, several polls conducted by the Cape Independence Advocacy Group show that a large majority of Cape residents favor a referendum on outright independence from South Africa.
The Western Cape has become a lifeboat for many South Africans fleeing the rising crime, racial discrimination, and economic depression throughout the ANC-led provinces of the country.
But Western Cape voters are not just opposed to ANC rule, they oppose the BRICS-based economic trajectory of South Africa. When South Africa’s President Ramaphosa referred to Putin as a “valuable ally and friend,” DA leader John Steenhuisen fired off an op-ed titled “Putin is your ally, Mr. President, not South Africa’s.”
When the ANC government in Pretoria gave the ultimatum to Taiwan to close its diplomatic liaison office in the city, pro-Cape independence party leader Phil Craig fired off a statement showing the contrast between the Western Cape and the rest of South Africa:
ALL people have a right to self-determination, including the Taiwanese people. The US is now calling out the ANC on its extraordinarily selective application of this right: Yes to Palestine, S.Sudan, & Western Sahara. No to Taiwan, the Western Cape, & Afrikaners.
America is South Africa’s second largest export market. Losing its favorable trade position will cost the country billions. Trump’s dramatic carrot and stick approach has proven very effective in the early days of his administration. I would only suggest that he set his sights even higher in South Africa.
The Western Cape is looking West to its future, not East. This pro-American base of support presents the best opportunity in 30 years for America to seriously re-engage in the region (and thereby the rest of Southern Africa) from a position of strength, establishing new economic and strategic defense partnerships.
As grateful as many Afrikaners feel to have a place of escape in America, I can assure President Trump (after living in South Africa for many years) that nearly all of them would prefer to stay in the land they’ve called home for centuries. And, honestly, why should they have to leave?
Rather than placing sanctions on the whole of South Africa, the US can single out its one regional ally in the country (the Western Cape) and deal with this provincial government directly, bypassing the corrupt and kleptocratic party bosses of the ANC and providing generous trade agreements to Cape-based farms, factories, and businesses.
The Western Cape is the most racially diverse, competently run province in South Africa.
And the Cape loves America and her allies. For years, the province has sought to gain more autonomy for itself — instead of being the milking cow for the rest of South Africa.
President Trump has an opportunity to have his cake and eat it. He can protect the interests of oppressed minorities in South Africa while establishing an economic beachhead for America in one of the most strategic port cities of the African continent.
And he can do this whether the ANC national government repeals the expropriation law or not.
Trump can do this by simply supporting the Western Cape in securing what it has always voted for but never received: regional autonomy; the right to run its own affairs; the right to police its own streets; and the right to negotiate its own trade deals with its own friends. In a word, authentic democracy.
South Africans don’t need America as a lifeboat. They already have the Western Cape. What the Western Cape needs is a friend like President Donald J. Trump. This is how Trump can make BRICS singular again.
Matt Chancey is a former Republican State Executive Committeeman and resident of the Western Cape of South Africa.
The post The South Africa Opportunity: How Trump Could “Make BRICS Singular Again” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
