The Washington-Pretoria-Tel Aviv relay
Patrick Bond
2014-09-05, Issue <
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/692> 692
<
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92837>
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92837
Many observers have been quick to argue that the recent US-Africa summit was
meant to deepen America’s involvement in Africa at a time when China is fast
expanding its presence on the continent. That may well be so, but it is also
not unlikely that the US could work with China and other nations for mutual
exploitation of Africa
What, ultimately, was the importance of
<
http://www.whitehouse.gov/us-africa-leaders-summit> the Africa-US Leaders
Summit at the White House early last month? It came at a very decisive
moment for geopolitical relations in the axis linking Washington, Pretoria
and Tel Aviv. And surprising US-China economic connections were also
revealed, potentially reaching deep into Africa. Mega-corporations of both
US and African parentage revelled in the attention and repeated blasts of
public subsidies, with deals alleged to have reached $37 billion over the
three days.
We may never know the backroom Faustian Pacts done by African elites with
these firms, but what public signals were sent? How dangerous is it that
President Jacob Zuma is welcoming US military and corporate institutions
back to Africa with open arms, as the continent’s aspirant gatekeeper?
THE PALESTINE TEST
First, Middle East turmoil is now, to use a word we must regrettably return
to, paramount. Iraq, Libya and Syria remain profoundly unstable. But in
Gaza, where ‘incremental genocide’ is underway, according to Israeli
historian
<
http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-incremental-genocide-gaza-ghe
tto/13562> Ilan Pappé, world concern is most urgent. During Israel’s
escalating war against Palestine, even United Nations leader Ban Ki-Moon –
formerly a behind-the-scenes
<
http://www.williambowles.info/2014/08/10/wikileaks-ban-ki-moon-worked-with-
israel-to-undermine-un-report/> supporter of Gaza bombing –
<
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-ban
-kimoon-declares-israeli-attack-on-un-school-a-criminal-act-9645278.html>
bemoaned the ‘criminal’ brutality of Tel Aviv’s indiscriminate attacks, as
UN schools were periodically demolished. US president Barack Obama,
meanwhile,
<
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/us_says_gaza_school_attack_tota
lly_unacceptable_but_restock_ammo_20140731> restocked the ammunition so the
Israelis could reload. More than 2000 people have died in the latest
attacks.
What did we learn at the frontline of Palestine solidarity, South Africa? On
the one hand, many were surprised and appalled by the August 3 outpouring of
support for the war by around 10 000 Israeli supporters, including leaders
of two (marginal) black political parties and a major black evangelical
church. Called by the hard-line South African Zionist Federation at the
Huddle Park golf course in eastern Johannesburg, the backslapping rally
occurred just as Israel was bombing more UN schools, but no sign of humility
was displayed. A similar rally in
<
http://www.sajr.co.za/news-and-articles/2014/08/13/cape-town-comes-out-in-f
ull-force-for-israel> Cape Town a week later attracted 4000.
South African Zionists exhibit breath-taking chutzpah. Those gathered at
Huddle Park were amongst the main economic beneficiaries of apartheid (you
can tell this by skin colour), and also of post-apartheid neoliberal
economic policies whose historically unprecedented high interest rates and
liberalised exchange controls reward those already wealthy.
Yet the same people feel beleaguered on the cultural front, with many
experiences in mainstream society leaving Zionists alienated and
exasperated. Bruises to the South African Zionist ego have been found during
the annual
<
http://www.sajr.co.za/news-and-articles/2014/04/01/hidden-agenda-of-israeli
-apartheid-week-> ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ events, in current controversies
over Israeli products for sale at upscale supermarket
<
http://mg.co.za/article/2014-08-01-pressure-on-woolies-to-drop-israeli-good
s> Woolworths, especially the Sodastream water carbonator scandalised by
Scarlett Johansson, and
<
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/24/the-academic-boycott-of-israel-2/>
academic boycotts of Israel that have raised tensions at major tertiary
institutions since 2011.
The same week that Zionists waved the flag in Johannesburg, one of Israel’s
most celebrated intellectuals, Pappé, made the round of major South African
universities and community halls. The majority-Muslim audiences gave Pappé
standing ovations after not only a dissection of the ‘incremental genocide’
now underway and account of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine over the
last century, but even his insistence on the need for a
<
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36229.htm> ‘one-state
solution’ narrative to emerge.
When Pappé shared a stage with the higher education minister
<
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-08-07-blade-batting-for-palesti
ne/#.U-11kWNe4Yo> Blade Nzimande, the University of Johannesburg crowd
roared for Pretoria to do more in solidarity with Palestine. Showing that
academic boycotts are institutional and not personal, Pappé’s tour added
more angst to the Zionists’ laager mentality. But what makes the battle over
solidarities much more acute was that 30 000
<
http://www.ecr.co.za/post/durban-protest-over-palestine-conflict/> Durban
residents protested very forcefully against Israel (July 25) and 100 000+
then came out in
<
http://mg.co.za/article/2014-08-09-thousands-gather-for-pro-palestine-rally
-in-cape-town> Cape Town (August 9).
As society polarises, it is often the function of weak rulers to make
soothing sounds so as to maintain status quo relations, and Zuma did not
fail. After increasingly vocal calls for Zuma to cut diplomatic and business
relations with Israel, as Latin American countries are doing, he
<
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Zuma-SA-will-not-expel-Israeli-ambas
sador-20140805> openly announced there would be no expulsion of its
ambassador, Arthur Lenk, to a standing ovation at a Washington press
conference. South African Zionists were also delighted by Pretoria’s blind
eye to the Gaza massacres, as Democratic Alliance MP Darren Bergman
<
http://www.sajr.co.za/news-and-articles/2014/07/23/both-jewish-mps-sent-in-
reports-today> crowed to the ultra-Zionist SA journalist Ant Katz: ‘at a
time like this it was not right to apportion blame to anyone but to rather
seek a quick and lasting solution. Give that man a Bells’ (sic).
This came on the heels of Zuma’s implicit rejection of the February 2014
<
http://mediareviewnet.com/2014/02/the-cape-town-declaration/> Cape Town
Declaration, which demanded a variety of SA-Israeli links be broken. It was
supported by most political parties, including the ruling African National
Congress (ANC), and as a result,
<
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=
568280&sn=Marketingweb+detail&pid=90389&utm_source=Politicsweb+Daily+Headlin
es&utm_campaign=e3833c9669-DHN_March_17_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a86
f25db99-e3833c9669-130027489> Katz reported of Zuma, ‘The pressure they have
been under to act (against Israel) has been enormous. The President chose to
change the direction, appoint a top ambassador to Israel and encourage
growth in trade,’ citing a foreign policy source.
One source of counter-pressure could well be Ivor Ichikowitz of the
<
http://www.paramountgroup.biz/> Paramount Group, Africa’s most aggressive
arms-dealing entrepreneur. The proximity he enjoys is impressive, perhaps
because of deals – including the fabled Iraqi food for oil scandal – with
ANC fundraisers like Sandi Majali, and his own millions in contributions to
the ruling party. For example, in 2008, Ichikowitz provided Zuma with
<
http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19
294:zuma-flies-qair-ichikowitzq&catid=35:Aerospace&Itemid=107> free flights
to Lebanon and Kazakhstan where interesting ‘business meetings’ were held,
and again in 2011 to Washington. Before the 2009 election, Ichikowitz
<
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=949328> flew an
ailing Nelson Mandela from Johannesburg to Mthatha airport for the ruling
party’s political gain, ‘unleashing a furore over whether the ANC had
jeopardised his health and disregarded his strict travel protocol.’ More
recently, his air-chauffeur role again courted controversy, even in Israel,
because he gave Ambassador Lenk and his family a
<
http://www.timesofisrael.com/envoy-to-south-africa-suspected-of-accepting-i
llegal-gifts/> free flight and weekend holiday at his Madikwe Game Reserve
lodge.
‘We will not supply countries that have a bad human rights record,’
Ichikowitz claimed to a
<
http://www.bdlive.co.za/businesstimes/2013/08/25/defending-the-profits-of-t
he-peace-industry> Sunday Business Times reporter in 2013, because ‘the
South African government would not allow us to supply countries that would
be inappropriate.’ Pretoria’s arms sales oversight is, in fact, notorious,
most spectacularly just before the 2003 US/UK invasion of Iraq on false
premises, when Denel supplied the Western belligerents with ammunition
shell-casing, artillery propellants, and laser range finders. According to a
2013
<
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-03-13-arms-trade-sa-must-lead-by-example>
Amnesty International complaint, the Arms Control Committee led by Minister
Jeff Radebe ‘authorised conventional arms sales to governments without the
required scrutiny,’ even following a
<
http://www.irinnews.org/report/87967/south-africa-arms-export-controls-in-m
eltdown> 2010 scandal in which the Auditor General slated 58 dubious arms
deals between involving South Africans, including with rights-violating
regimes in Sudan, Gabon, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Algeria, Egypt and the Central
African Republic.
In 2005, the
<
http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/stinvestigations/2013/03/27/arms-
and-the-man-who-would-be-king> Defense Department accused Ichikowitz’s firms
of ‘violating arms control rules in exports to several countries, including
Angola and Ghana,’ bribing at least one army colonel in the process. Two
years later, he was involved in what the
<
http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/stinvestigations/2013/03/27/arms-
and-the-man-who-would-be-king> Sunday Times termed ‘a mining venture in the
war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with the Makabuza family,
whose members have been accused of illegal arms trading and funding a rebel
group charged with war crimes.’
This year, Ichikowitz made the news for allegedly
<
http://www.sajr.co.za/news-and-articles/2014/01/26/is-banda-using-plane-fre
e-buying-paramount-boats-> corrupting the Malawian government with transport
and also
<
http://www.bdlive.co.za/businesstimes/2013/08/25/defending-the-profits-of-t
he-peace-industry> supplying the
<
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2619722/Brazil-police-accused-clean
sing-favelas-World-Cup-football-carnival-rolls-town.html> vicious Brazilian
police with weapons to use in its clampdown on the favelas before this
year’s World Cup, featuring extra-judicial killings and mass displacements.
He began his career
<
http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/just-don-t-call-him-a-gunrunner-1.1533566#.U-
xPhmNe4Yo> working with Rwanda’s authoritarian ruler Paul Kagame (allegedly
<
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/25/rwanda-paul-kagame-war-crimes>
responsible for many of the five million deaths in neighbouring DRC), and
<
http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/the-simon-round-interview/70252/the-billiona
ire-who-raised-money-nelson-mandela> praises Equatorial Guinea’s hated
dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo as well as the late DRC dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko, whom he called ‘a strong, powerful leader loved by many of
his people.’
This man is a dangerous asset for Pretoria to wield in a context of extreme
internecine competition over markets – including military equipment –
between South Africa, China, the European Union and the US. Ichikowitz
apparently understands the need to buff his image, through his family
foundation’s <
http://ichikowitzfoundation.com/plotforpeace.php> new film
publicising a French commodities trader who had a minor role in
anti-apartheid deal-making during the late 1980s, through sponsoring a book
about <
http://ichikowitzfoundation.com/publications.php> Jewish
anti-apartheid heroes, and in the press.
With this kind of public relations concern, stretching to hiring
professional
<
http://muchachoverde.blogspot.com/2011/12/ivor-ichikowitz-not-very-nice-man
.html> sock-puppets to edit his Wikipedia entry, we should follow
Ichikowitz’s moves more closely. For example, on August 13 he reported back
from Washington to Johannesburg Star newspaper readers on the main editorial
page, ‘The primary challenge as I see it for the US will be to overcome the
reputational damage caused by the infamous mantra of the ‘regime change’
approach in years past. This bellicose security and defence issue remains a
major concern to African emerging market actors.’
He is speaking of himself, for Ichikowitz is attempting to have US aid and
International Monetary Fund rules relaxed so that he can do much bigger arms
deals with African tyrants.
<
http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35
742:ichikowitz-calls-on-obama-to-give-africa-the-chance-to-defend-itself&cat
id=56:diplomacy-a-peace&Itemid=111> Ichikowitz claims that these elites have
‘no capacity to be able to afford the solutions they require because of
limitations imposed by the international community on how they use their
budget.’ (Making the same case in the US last month, Ichikowitz
<
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/05/african-arms-maker-to-obam
a-give-war-a-chance.html> faced ridicule in at least one major periodical,
but in South Africa, ownership of The Star by ANC ally Iqbal Survé appears
to lower the vigilance level.)
At the same time, two other Israelis are in the news for their controversial
extractive industry activities. Commodities czar
<
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2014/08/11/israeli-tycoon-claims-huge-oil
-find-in-dr-congo> Dan Gertler – according to
<
http://www.forbes.com/profile/dan-gertler/> Forbes, worth $2.6 billion –
has found massive oil reserves in the DRC, working in collaboration with
Zuma’s nephew
<
http://www.citypress.co.za/news/khulubuse-zumas-r100bn-oil-deal/>
Khulubuse, whose prior extractive industry accomplishments are not
impressive. Both are very close to DRC authoritarian leader Joseph Kabila,
which
<
http://www.globalwitness.org/library/news-over-ownership-congolese-oil-bloc
ks-raises-further-corruption-concerns> Global Witness suggests ‘raises
further corruption concerns.’
<
http://www.sajr.co.za/news-and-articles/2014/05/14/who-is-yaron-yamin-meet-
r.-berland%27s-funder-> Yaron Yamin is the second: a Bulawayo-based magnate
who arrived in Zimbabwe with no english skills and no money, but with a
controversial fundamentalist Israeli religious connection – Rabbi Eliezer
Berland – whom he now funds with half his proceeds, even arranging a Lear
jet shopping trip for Johannesburg essentials every week. Last December,
Yamin <
http://www.rough-polished.com/en/news/84797.html> announced he would
do business with Zimbabwe’s corrupt military and mining elite in the Marange
diamond fields, well known as the source of the country’s tragic
<
http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/08/30/zimbabwe-rampant-abuses-marange-diamond-
fields> Resource Curse, including several hundred murders of resident
informal-sector diggers by the army in 2008.
US CORPORATE SEDUCTION
This is the kind of arrangement that generates militaristic links between
the contending powers, mainly for the sake of resource extraction. It also
helps explain Zuma’s re-embrace of Washington, for as he explained last
month in a <
http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=17792> talk to
US Chamber of Commerce, ‘Amongst our flagship projects, we have invested
more than one trillion rand in infrastructure since 2009. We are further
investing more than 840 billion rand [$80bn] in infrastructure development
over the next three years. The bulk of this spend is going into energy and
transport related infrastructure.’
For expanding Transnet’s reach with a locomotive joint venture, Zuma praised
General Electric. After all, he explained, ‘South Africa’s economic growth
is inextricably linked to that of Africa as a whole. That is why we put
great emphasis in developing not only our country’s infrastructure, but that
of the African continent too.’
The warm reception impressed Johannesburg Business Day reporter
<
http://www.bdlive.co.za/africa/africanbusiness/2014/08/11/news-analysis-sum
mit-takes-us-to-african-centre-stage> Nicholas Kotsch, who cited GE chief
executive Jeff Immelt applauding Washington for US Export-Import Bank
subsidies: ‘In a very competitive world where we are up against China Inc
and Europe Inc, it’s good to have this sort of support.’
In contrast, Kotsch felt obliged to observe, ‘The summit had almost nothing
to say about 200 schoolgirls held captive in northeast Nigeria by Boko Haram
guerrillas and the attacks in Kenya by other Islamist extremists.
Legislative hounding of gays in Uganda and a few other countries were
ignored,’ because, he opined, ‘Perhaps the fear was that addressing such
sensitive political matters would be bad for business and if ever a summit
was about the nexus between presidents and business, this was it.’
Not to be left out of the nexus, however, Beijing’s Africa handlers must
have felt insulted by the prior week’s Economist magazine interview of
<
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/08/economist-intervi
ews-barack-obama-1> Obama: ‘My advice to African leaders is to make sure
that if, in fact, China is putting in roads and bridges, number one, that
they’re hiring African workers; number two, that the roads don’t just lead
from the mine to the port to Shanghai.’ Naturally Obama wants those African
ports to host ships with minerals and oil headed for New York, New Orleans
and Houston.
CHINA’S CHALLENGE
The competitive relationship with China is especially interesting because
the US State Department’s top official for Africa from 2009 through last
year, Assistant Secretary (A/S) of State Johnny Carson, very openly
described – to leading Nigerian businesspeople in a February 2010 friendly
chat whose details Chelsea Manning liberated for WikiLeaks via a
<
http://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/250144> State
Department cable – China as a ‘a very aggressive and pernicious economic
competitor with no morals.’ He continued, ‘The Chinese are dealing with the
Mugabes and Bashirs of the world, which is a contrarian political model.’
Unlike the Chinese leaders, Obama has very strong morals. He does not deal
with the likes of Mugabe or Bashir, who were banned from last month’s
meeting at the White House. Instead, Obama is dealing with African democrats
who abhor corruption and would never practice brutality against their
citizenry, good men such as Uhuru Kenyatta, Paul Biya, Blaise Compaore, Paul
Kagame, Yoweri Museveni, Teodoro Obiang, José Eduardo dos Santos, Idriss
Deby, Joseph Kabila, Jacob Zuma, Goodluck Jonathan, Yahya Jammeh and
Hailemariam Desalegn – whose praises are also sung by
<
http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/2014/07/24/cirque_du_afrique_2014_us-af
rica_leaders_summit> Alemayehu Mariam – and others in the same league such
as King Mswati and Alpha Conde.
Tellingly, former Rwandan Ambassador to the US Theogene Rudasingwa wrote a
<
http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/Open-letter-to-Secretary-of-
State-John-Kerry/-/689844/2318532/-/u73wd5z/-/index.html> pleading letter to
the Obama administration, asking Secretary of State John Kerry to ‘reign in
your national security team. The hawks among them will insist that there is
a red threat (China) looming over Africa, which must be contained or
neutralised. Furthermore, these hawks argue, it is US security and economic
interests that should take precedence over anything else, even if this means
baby-sitting some of Africa’s most dangerous big men.’
But the red threat is being neutralised, if Obama succeeds in winning more
African tyrants’ hearts and minds. The Economist interviewer asked, ‘You see
countries like China creating a BRICS bank, for instance – institutions that
seem to be parallel with the system, rather – and potentially putting
pressure on the system rather than adding to it and strengthening it. That
is the key issue, whether China ends up inside that system or challenging
it. That’s the really big issue of our times, I think.’ Obama replied, ‘It
is. And I think it’s important for the United States and Europe to continue
to welcome China as a full partner in these international norms.’
As if on cue, the Wall Street Journal
<
http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-plays-a-big-role-as-u-s-treasury-yield
s-fall-1405545034> reported a ‘proposal by Beijing to work together [with
Washington] on large infrastructure projects such as the Inga-3
hydroelectric dam in the DRC… For the US, a partnership with China on such
projects could sustain long-term the central role of the World Bank and
IMF.’
Added the
<
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0eb59686-1cb8-11e4-b4c7-00144feabdc0.html>
Financial Times, ‘US officials say that a partnership with China on Inga-3
or another dam would be an important breakthrough in collaboration at a time
when
<
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b2176dea-0732-11e4-81c6-00144feab7de.html>
military rivalry between the two countries in Asia is growing.’ The main
project under discussion, a dam on the Congo River three times larger than
China’s Three Gorges, would send the vast majority of its electricity into
mining and smelting. South Africa knows the terrible denouement caused by a
Minerals-Energy Complex taking over state power, personified in a testimony
by
<
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-08-13-when-survival-and-account
ability-collide-ramaphosa-and-jordans-moments-of-reckoning/#.U-rrJmNe4Yo>
Cyril Ramaphosa about why he, a 9 percent owner in Lonmin, called in police
to conduct operations against his ‘dastardly criminal’ platinum mineworkers,
who were striking at Marikana two years ago.
The Chinese elites are still not short of cash, and to illustrate the
symbiotic relationship, Beijing purchased $107 billion of US government
bonds in the first five months of 2014. According to the
<
http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-plays-a-big-role-as-u-s-treasury-yield
s-fall-1405545034> Wall St Journal in July, this was ‘the fastest pace since
records began more than three decades ago.’ The Chinese, in return, now
apparently want US cooperation to lower risk and intensify the exploitative
process in Africa, even at the risk of assisting a competitor to get its
boot back down hard on local throats.
The potential for US military activity in Africa remains
<
http://links.org.au/node/3043> great, given Washington’s need to prop up
friendly dictators against all manner of local resistances – not only
religious extremists, but also social activists whose rate of protest has,
in 2011-13, been growing even faster than the 2010-11 North African uprising
period, according to the African Development Bank’s
<
http://www.afdb.org/en/annual-meetings-2014/programme/african-economic-outl
ook-2014/> latest count.
But in contrast to frightening recent reports from the brilliant US
journalist
<
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175830/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_africom_becom
es_a_%22war-fighting_combatant_command%22> Nick Turse about the Pentagon’s
‘war fighting combatant command’ in dozens of African countries, there is
still a rather blunt division of labour at work between Washington and its
deputy sheriff in Pretoria. Strategists from the
<
http://www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/2010/spring/cochran.pdf> Africa Command have
already explained why they are doing so much training of African militaries,
including
<
http://southafrica.usembassy.gov/press-releases-latest/joint-u.s.-south-afr
ican-military-exercise-showcases-bilateral-security-cooperation> SA National
Defence Force soldiers: ‘We don’t want to see our guys going in and getting
whacked.’
It is here that Zuma offered the most disturbing words last month, a
veritable sub-imperialist manifesto: ‘There had been a good relationship
already between Africa and the US but this summit has reshaped it and has
taken it to another level… We secured a buy-in from the US for Africa’s
peace and security initiatives… As President Obama said, the boots must be
African.’
* Patrick Bond directs the University of KwaZulu-Natal
<
http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/> Centre for Civil Society in Durban.
Received on Fri Sep 05 2014 - 08:29:42 EDT