JOHANNESBURG—In terms of ideology and constitutional principles, South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party (URP) couldn’t be further apart, according to analysts.
South Africa, because of the ANC, has one of the most liberal constitutions in the world, and in 2006, it became the first, and so far only, African country to legalize same-sex marriage. Adults in the country are legally permitted to consume cannabis, as long as it’s in private.
No one in South Africa gets jailed for insulting anyone in the ruling party, and elections since 1994 have been free and fair. Comedians make fun of politicians, and social media is often abuzz with rumors about an ANC bigwig’s affair with a younger woman.
The ANC doesn’t trump up charges against political opponents, poison them, or confine them to penal colonies.
Yet, South Africa’s closest allies, especially in recent times, are countries where authoritarianism and not democracy reigns, and where human rights and electoral processes are often abused.
On Feb. 24, under a blazing sun in a stadium in Durban, President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the ANC’s campaign ahead of a crucial election on May 29.
Shortly after his speech, in an interview with The Epoch Times, Mr. Ramaphosa said there was “nothing contradictory” about the ANC’s relations with Moscow and Beijing.
“We have many friends globally,” he said. “The United States is a close ally, even though we differ with them on some issues. The same can be said for Russia and China. We don’t agree with everything they do, but they remain our friends. Friends cannot agree on everything.”
When pressed to explain why the ANC had recently joined a Putin-led alliance of ruling parties from more than 50 countries—including China, North Korea, and Myanmar—against “Western neo-colonialism,” Mr. Ramaphosa responded: “The world is very topsy-turvy at the moment, and we feel that there’s a lot of talking going on but not much listening.
“We would like to bring as many different parties into the tent as possible. Of course, we cannot forget what the former Soviet Union did for the ANC with its support during apartheid.”
The Moscow conference where the “international inter-party forum against modern neo-colonialist practices” was formed was organized by the URP, and ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula was one of the keynote speakers.
During his speech, he said the ANC was “proud” to be part of a “meeting of minds” putting a “new world order in motion.”
When asked whether he thought Western countries would view this as a threat and would henceforth regard the ANC as an “enemy” that was part of a Russia-led campaign to negate their influence, Mr. Ramaphosa smiled.
“Well, we are not out to be anyone’s enemy,” he said. “But I don’t think anyone can argue that the world needs a new way of looking at things. And, by the way, many of our Western allies agree with this. The world is changing and we need a new balance.”
At the Moscow event, Mr. Mbalula said South Africa, and in particular the ANC, would always “stand with Russia.”
He continued: “We make no apologies for that. We will never abandon you.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (R) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of a meeting with African leaders at the Constantine (Konstantinovsky) Palace in Strelna, outside Saint Petersburg, on June 19, 2023. Ramil Sitdikov/Ria Novosti/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Mbalula said the South African government was “ready to sacrifice relationships with other friends” for the sake of its alliance with Russia.
“Geopolitically, the ANC administration is firmly in the camp of the likes of Russia, China, Iran, and Syria,” professor Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, international relations expert at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, said. “These are its allies on the world stage, not the United States and the United Kingdom, countries with laws that for the most part mirror those of South Africa’s.”
“South Africa labels Israel as an apartheid state for its actions in the Palestinian territories but actually it’s Russia and Putin’s government that most resemble 1980s apartheid South Africa, in its Kremlin-instigated nationalistic fervor; in its conscription of citizens to fight in an unjust war, and in its frequent assassinations and imprisonment of anyone who dares raise a voice against ‘the master,’” he told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Van Nieuwkerk said that, on the surface, South Africa’s relationships internationally were “contradictory and anomalous” because the ANC formed close ties with countries that “run completely contrary” to the constitution to which the ANC subscribed.
“Russia, and China for that matter, form close ties almost exclusively with dictatorial, kleptocratic, violent regimes, where human rights are absent, and where governments rule by the gun, and where ruling parties are all-powerful, just like in Russia and China,” he said. “So these contradictions cut both ways.
“I don’t think there are any arguments that the ANC runs a corrupt government, but that’s where its similarities to Russia and China end. South Africa’s judiciary is independent, and often makes rulings that anger the government. Political opposition and even dissent are tolerated in South Africa.”
According to many analysts, including Mr. Van Nieuwkerk, Russia is benefiting immensely from its relationship with the ANC.
“On the propaganda front, South Africa is the jewel in Putin’s African crown,” he said. “Putin clearly considers South Africa to be a kind of gateway to use to peddle influence across the continent. That’s why he always makes the ANC a headline act at all these conferences he hosts.”
Mr. Van Nieuwkerk said South Africa was a “big catch” for Moscow because it was very different from almost all the other African countries where Russia has a strong foothold, mostly based on its thirst for minerals.
“As far as I know there’s no democracy in Zimbabwe, Mali, DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), CAR (Central African Republic), and so on,” he said.
Professor Irina Filatova, who analyzes Russia–Africa relations at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said there were “many contradictions” in the relationship between the modern-day ANC, and the modern-day Russian state.
“But in the end, it comes down to the fact that both are vehemently anti-Western. When Moscow and Putin say they are on the side of the developing world because they too are anti-colonial, well, that’s a song the ANC likes hearing because that’s what the ANC’s philosophy is based on,” she told The Epoch Times.
“And you must also note that where the ANC and Putin’s United Russia Party are the same is that ideology doesn’t really matter to them anymore.
“Everything they say is couched in ideological terms, but really all both parties are trying to do is to hold on to power so that they can hold on to their core business, which is using the state to enrich themselves.
“The ANC just does it in a different way, and so far not through the violence that characterizes modern-day Russia.”
Samuel Ramani, lecturer in politics and international relations at Oxford University and author of the recent book “Russia in Africa,” said the URP’s strategy of forming party-to-party relationships with African countries and parties in the Global South, mirrors the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to export its governance model to African nations.
“United Russia feels anti-Westernism and its desire to help create a ‘multipolar’ world appeal very broadly around the world, and to right-wing and left-wing, conservative and liberal parties,” he told The Epoch Times.
“What unites these disparate parties is mutual antipathy for the West, not ideology, not democratic ideals, which is why they find it quite easy to form alliances.”
Mr. Ramani pointed out that Russia had signed “cooperation agreements” with several right-wing parties in recent months, including the populist Freedom Party of Austria and Italy’s populist Five Star Movement.
At the same time, Mr. Ramani said, the URP had signed agreements with leftist parties such as the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party in Syria, the Workers’ Party of Korea, and the Communist Party of Cuba.
Its agreement with the ANC dates back to 2012.
Maria Snegovaya, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, has studied Russia’s influence-peddling in Europe, where she found that Moscow had forged relationships with “Eurosceptic” parties on both the left and right.
“Like in Africa, Russia’s influence operations in Europe are opportunistic rather than ideological,” Ms. Snegovaya told The Epoch Times. “Moscow exploits specific opportunities presented in specific regions and specific countries. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of strategy. It’s very focused and clever.”
She called the parties allied with Russia “the Kremlin’s fellow travelers.”
“These parties in Europe and Russia are using one another to promote their mutual anti-EU interests,” she said. “It isn’t Moscow using the European parties to advance its anti-EU agenda.”
Mr. Van Nieuwkerk said the Kremlin’s approach was “very similar” in Africa, particularly with regard to South Africa.
“So we have Russia and her agents actively encouraging ... misinformation and disinformation campaigns and by means of key officials in various ruling parties, animosity towards the West,” he said.
“Parties like the ANC know exactly what Russia is doing, make no mistake. But the anti-West narrative is a populist one, and the ANC and others gear their information to willing ears.”
