The New Axis: South Africa?

For the ANC the Cold War never really ended. And while it maintains an air of respectability when begging for Western investment and foreign aid, in truth it sides with rogue states and dictators.

In previous articles, I discussed the rise of China, Russia and Iran as players in a New Axis that exists to disrupt Western power, and the liberal democratic world order. There are many minor players in this New Axis. Before the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela was a key ally of the New Axis. Cuba and North Korea are also both allies of the New Axis, existing as pariah states and vestiges of the old Communist order.

But arguably, South Africa may be an even more prominent ally of the New Axis than even these countries. While the African National Congress (ANC) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) preach neutrality and a support for global human rights, their foreign policy has revealed a commitment to opposing Western interests and providing diplomatic cover and support for members of the New Axis.

Foreign policy for sale

The ANC proclaims a solidarity with the so-called global South, decrying imperialists and neo-colonialism. It maintains relationships with allies that it made during the liberation struggle – ignoring that these relationships were transactional and not borne from goodness or true ideological loyalty.

For the ANC the Cold War never really ended. And while it maintains an air of respectability when begging for Western investment and foreign aid, in truth it sides with rogue states, dictators and war criminals to not just push an anti-Western agenda, but also to receive bribes.

The ANC has ensured that South Africa’s foreign policy is not just irrationally in favour of the New Axis but also uses it as a fundraising tool. Since 1994, the ANC has effectively leased its foreign policy to the highest bidder.

These bribes have been used to fill ANC party and official’s coffers, while providing diplomatic cover and legitimacy to dictators like Libya’s Gaddafi, Nigeria’s Abacha and Indonesia’s Suharto, all of which were engaging in brutal violence against civilians.

The ANC even tried to pursue a relationship with Saddam Hussein in 2003 ahead of the US invasion, attempting to solicit bribes in return for support. This is after Hussein had used chemical weapons on civilians.

The ANC doesn’t care about South Africa’s actual national interest or human rights and will side with states that it feels benefits it personally – not the needs of the country. But the ANC’s opportunism has coalesced into more than just flippant patronage and has become concrete and consistent support for the New Axis powers.

Russia: Ammo ships and unequal condemnation

Despite its anti-imperialist stance, DIRCO and the ANC refused to outright condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Rather, it chose to abstain on the United Nations (UN) resolution to condemn Russia’s invasion.

While the ANC preaches non-alignment, it still expresses tacit and practical support for Russia.

In December 2022 a Russian-linked ship called the Lady R docked at Simon’s Town naval base and was publicly accused by the US ambassador of being used to supply Russia with weapons and ammunition. The ANC government subsequently investigated itself and found itself innocent. It is highly likely that the Lady R was involved in carrying weapons to a warzone, and that the South African government was involved in a cover up.

Even without unconfirmed, if likely, arm shipments, the South African military still engages in strategic partnerships with Moscow, undertaking naval exercises on multiple occasions despite Russia being involved in a globally condemned war.

The ANC actively pursued a corrupt and expensive nuclear deal with Russia. Fortunately, courts ruled that the deal was fraught with legality issues.

Iran: Support for the terror state

The ANC has a particularly romantic relationship with Tehran and the Ayatollah. This has manifested in the ANC using its influence in the UN and nuclear regulatory bodies like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to provide diplomatic cover.

While it has been clear for years that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons to advance its geopolitical agendas and desire to annihilate Israel, South African officials have deluded themselves into officially commending Iran for its “compliance” with nuclear regulations, while encouraging the world to allow Iran to continue enriching uranium far past what is needed for civilian uses.

As Iran is clearly violating nuclear agreements, and South Africa is arguably wilfully trying to cover up that fact, that makes the ANC regime complicit in that criminality.

Aside from Iran’s nuclear programme, the South African military has also sought to deepen security ties with the Islamic Republic. Since 1995 South Africa and Iran have been signatories of a “Joint Commission of Cooperation”, with pushes to formalise defence cooperation. A Memorandum of Understanding with vague scope has also formalised security relations between Pretoria and Tehran.

While Tehran’s regime was murdering thousands of its own civilians, Iran participated in naval exercises in the beginning of 2026 in South African waters.. Iran is also allowed to use South African naval infrastructure.

SANDF General Rudzani Maphwanya was condemned by the government for declaring South Africa’s solidarity with the Tehran regime, but he wasn’t actually punished.

The ANC’s support for Iran extends to its proxy network, where officials from Hamas and Hezbollah, both brutal terrorist organisations have sent official delegations to the ANC and DIRCO and been received with open arms. Hamas even operates an office in Cape Town.

This solidarity with Hamas, a terrorist organisation responsible for murdering civilians, women, children and babies, as well as terrorising its own polity of Gaza, led to the ANC blundering itself into one of the biggest signals of its allegiance with the New Axis.

Gaza conflict: Wilful ignorance and blood libel

It took a while for the ANC to officially condemn the violence of October 7^th. Prior to this, there were report that DIRCO minister Naledi Pandor even congratulated Hamas on the military operation.

The bodies hadn’t even finished being counted in Israel before South Africa took the Jewish State to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023 on charges of genocide.

It is important to spell out the ludicrousness of this charge. It had been 83 days since the October 7^th massacre, where Hamas expressed genocidal intent and invaded Israel, killing over a thousand civilians and taking hundreds hostage.

In that time, the Hamas controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, which had an incentive to inflate numbers of dead for propaganda purposes, reported 21,507 dead. As recent reports show, many of those killed were combatants, not civilians. Modern urban warfare is, by its very nature, brutal. Yet the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) maintained a civilian-to-combatant death ratio lower than any other 21^st century urban war. On top of this, the IDF had repeatedly created humanitarian corridors to help civilians out of harm’s way, endangered operations by pre-warning civilians, and actively helped reduce civilian casualties – even at the risk of Israeli troop lives. This does not show intent to commit genocide. It shows the opposite.

In true genocides, like the Rwandan genocide, over half a million people had been killed in the same time frame. There was a clear intent by one side to exterminate another.

South Africa’s ICJ case was clearly bogus, lacking proof of intent, and a libel that has been used to fuel antisemitism worldwide. What makes matters worse is that while the ICJ didn’t find any proof of genocide occurring, anti-Israel pundits have spread blatant misinformation spreading the lie that Israel committed genocide.

Prior to the accusations, the ANC was struggling to even pay the rent for its head offices. But after taking Israel to the ICJ, it was suddenly cash flush. This, and further allegations by 160 lawyers and other officials have led many to believe that the ANC was bribed to take Israel to the ICJ to besmirch its global reputation.

As the genocide libel has undoubtedly led to the rise of global antisemitism, including the Bondi massacre in Australia, the ANC should be considered complicit in the rise of hatred against Jewish people worldwide.

China: Masochistic Alliance

The ANC has a toxic, masochistic relationship with Beijing. South Africa provides diplomatic cover for Beijing, and actively supports the One China policy, tacitly supporting Beijing’s violation of Taiwan’s sovereignty and existence as a vibrant democracy.

The South African navy also engages in exercises with China, inviting scrutiny from Western nations as China uses its navy to exert control over the waters of other countries in the so-called South China Sea.

South Africa’s arrangement with China does not benefit South African citizens. Chinese vessels have been allowed to overfish our waters, at the expense of local fishermen. Poaching of abalone and rhino horn is overlooked, as Chinese demand fuels the eradication of these endangered species.

On top of this, Chinese dumping, backed by government subsidies and an geopolitical policy that intentionally decimates foreign industries, destroyed our textile and manufacturing industries.

The ANC has allowed China to use South Africa as a gateway to Africa and has rewarded its people with hundreds of thousands of job losses, and global scrutiny.

South Africa: The Penniless Patsy

The South African people don’t want this. The majority of South Africans identify culturally and ethically with the West. We benefit much more from Western trade and investment than any of the negligible trade we get from Iran and Russia, or the poisoned fruit of Chinese trade.

Aligning with the New Axis powers does not only place us on the side of villains who abuse their own people while encroaching on the sovereignty of others, it also signals to the world that South Africa is also a rogue state.

But as Russia fails to take Ukraine, Iran is overwhelmed by protests, and China hits demographic collapse, the New Axis may very well be collapsing. And South Africa will find itself on not just the wrong side of history, but the losing side.

We are a liberal democratic country with a ruling party that desperately yearns for authoritarianism. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We need to elect leaders who understand what our country needs on the global stage and make the correct geopolitical decisions to ensure our country’s prosperity and place in the world order.

That means actively condemning the New Axis and moving towards the friendly embrace of a West that may be flawed, but is only vaguely problematic compared to the authoritarian capriciousness of the New Axis powers.

Nicholas Woode-Smith is managing editor of the Rational Standard and a senior associate at the Free Market Foundation. He writes in his personal capacity.