2019 Elections - Analysis: South Africa’s foreign affairs goes missing in action in the 2019 election By J Brooks Spector parkhurst1
During much of this current election campaign in South Africa for the national and provincial legislatures — and, therefore, for the presidency — it almost seems as if this campaign had been fought in Samuel Butler’s mythic Erewhon, Jonathan Swift’s cloud land of Laputa of, or in the land portrayed in those ancient Arab/Persian tales about the mysterious, distant island of Serendip.
Of course virtually every national election, anywhere, will naturally focus largely on important, pressing domestic issues — and the divisions between the parties and candidates over these domestic issues. Pretty much everywhere, the foreign policy usually weighs in at a distant second place, except in times of acute national security threats.
But mostly, when they bothered to speak about the country’s international circumstances at all, candidates and parties have only sporadically commented on a couple of foreign policy issues such as the Israel/Palestine conflicts, that hardy perennial of reform of international institutions , and, in the case of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the mandatory denunciations of Western imperialist designs.
If the question concerned BRICA, the candidates should be forced to explain how South Africa can work effectively for the nation’s benefit in conjunction with substantially authoritarian leaders like Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin or Narendra Modi and Jair Bolsanaro and their own special brands of authoritarian tendencies.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
2019 Elections - ANALYSIS: Curiouser and Curiouser – the strange case of the 2019 electionsThis has, by any standards, been a rather strange election campaign by the major parties. The ANC is riven with factionalism, the DA spends its time attacking other parties rather than putting its own message across, and the EFF is beginning to emerge as a force bigger than just one man, Julius Malema.
Read more »
2019 ELECTIONS: Regional election observers fear xenophobic attacks while monitoring elections2019 ELECTIONS: Regional election observers fear xenophobic attack while monitoring elections By Peter Fabricius Pfabric
Read more »
2019 Elections: State of Joburg: Elections looming, Mashaba lauds coalition governanceIf the DA has a chance of governing Gauteng, it’s through a coalition. On Tuesday, Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba lauded the benefits of coalition governance in his State of the City Address (SOCA).
Read more »
Elections 2019: It’s all a little below par | Elections | M&GCan President Cyril Ramaphosa bring traditional ANC voters back into the fold, despite the manifest flaws of his own party, and thereby give himself more political room for manoeuvre, to drive his reform agenda more decisively in government?
Read more »
2019 ELECTIONS: In Eastern Cape, Ramaphosa vows to make South Africa great againIn the Eastern Cape at the weekend it was mostly more of the same with President Cyril Ramaphosa on the campaign trail. But he did veer off script to accidentally quote an American president, and his dad jokes evaporated in the province’s hut-dotted rolling green hills.
Read more »
2019 Elections: The big metro race: ‘56% in Gauteng’ – ANC, ‘Hell, no’ – DA2019 Elections: The big metro race: ‘56% in Gauteng’ – ANC, ‘Hell, no’ – DA By Ferial Haffajee ferialhaffajee
Read more »
2019 Elections: The Disappeared – more than 15 million eligible voters will not vote on SA’s futureNext Wednesday, 10 million South Africans who are eligible to vote won’t be at the ballot stations because they did not register. By polling and historic voter turnout patterns, about five million more people who have registered are unlikely to make to the polls.
Read more »
2019 ELECTIONS: ‘Hou die Wes-Kaap blou’ — DA’s message at final metro rallyOn Wednesday, Western Cape members of the Democratic Alliance held their final 2019 election rally to coincide with Workers’ Day. The message of the rally was clear: Vote for the DA in the 8 May national and provincial elections to keep out the ‘Bosasa thieves and the VBS thieves’.
Read more »
2019 ELECTIONS: Malema calls for arrest of those who wasted Alexandra Renewal Project moneyAt a May Day election Rally held at Alexandra in Gauteng, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema told residents that when the EFF government is elected into office it will arrest ANC members who took money that was meant to built houses in the area. And in election campaign style, Malema expounded on more promises by the EFF.
Read more »
PERSPECTIVE: Battle of the stadia as 2019 elections approach day zeroAs the last days of campaigning for the 2019 South African elections draw to a close, the three major political parties are staking their reputations on their ability to get bums on seats in three different venues. Their choice of stadia is in itself a commentary on how they view their chances.
Read more »