South Africa's Sovereignty and Foreign Policy

I think the South African public has to prepare itself for the worst case

scenario because, um, the reality is that we are

expected to surrender our sovereignty on issues

related to BEE,

to issues related to labor reform, in particular expropriation,

um, uh, uh, as, as, as outlined in the Expropriation

Act with nil, uh, compensation, and on a number of

issues that belongs to the sovereignty which South African public and the

South African institutions are capable to handle and to deal with,

including on issues of our own foreign policy, the progressive

foreign policy with the human rights outlook, which is in the UN Charter.

So these are issues of, uh, serious contestation, um, with the, with

the US, and we are of the view that these are issues that belongs to

the sovereignty of the South African people.

And some of the people that are pursuing them here in the US,

like, uh, the minority groups in South Africa,

some of them,

um, um, have lost them in the ballot box, in the, in the, in

the, in the platform of contestations of

democracy.

South Africa is one of the most thriving democracies where people take

their issues through a democratic, uh, process.

So as, uh, while we, we remain very optimistic

to engage with the South, with the, with the American government,

because we view

them as a strategic partner, we, we also have to ensure that the

sovereignty of the South African constitution remains sacrosanct.