US envoy candidate seen as bad for SA
LILIESLEAF Trust chief executive Nic Wolpe has returned from Washington, where he lobbied the US government and Congress on the choice of US ambassador to South Africa.
“I told them quite candidly that sending someone like Joel Pollak as ambassador to South Africa would send relations between South Africa and the US back to the Dark Ages,” Wolpe told The Star.
As the Liliesleaf Trust has now been established in the US, Wolpe regularly travels to the US to raise funds. He was invited by Microsoft’s head office to give a talk on South Africa’s liberation Struggle, as well as by the University of Kentucky to give two lectures on the same subject.
Wolpe took the opportunity to engage members of the US Congress, staffers on Capitol Hill and senior officials at the State Department.
Wolpe got a warm reception from Republican and Democrat members of Congress who he informally engaged on the issue of US representation in South Africa.
“A number of people at home told me it would be helpful to raise concern on Capitol Hill that if the US were to send Pollak as ambassador, he would have very little success engaging with the government and people of South Africa.”
According to Wolpe, Republicans and Democrats who he met expressed a recognition across party lines that the relationship between the US and South Africa was an important one.
Pollak, who works as the senior editor-at-large of the extreme right-wing Breitbart News, was previously the deputy to Breitbart editor Steve Bannon, who is now the chief strategist and adviser to President Donald Trump.
“The US should not allow someone with extreme rightwing views to be the US representative in South Africa, especially given our history. Pollak espouses hatred, if one considers Breitbart’s support for the Muslim travel ban, which is predicated on religious grounds,” Wolpe said.
“How can people be expected to interact with such a person when he holds views opposite to our Freedom Charter and the values of our Struggle for liberation? His presence in South Africa will only inflame the rising discord and discontent, which his mentor Steve Bannon seems to thrive on and foster in the White House.”
The US embassy confirmed to The Star that no choice for US ambassador to South Africa had been decided on, and there was currently no information on who Patrick Gaspard’s successor will be.
Wolpe has an established network of contacts in the US Congress, given that his cousin Howard Wolpe was the chair-
He would send relations back to the Dark Ages
person of the subcommittee on Africa of the committee on foreign affairs in the 1980s. It was Howard who played an influential role in bringing the Africa Bill to Congress advocating sanctions against apartheid South Africa.
Speaking to Nic Wolpe on condition of anonymity, a figure with well-established contacts on Capitol Hill told him: “Presidents Zuma and Trump spoke of the need for closer economic ties between the two countries. Any US ambassador to South Africa should have a deep knowledge of the trade and investment patterns, landscape and dynamics, as well as access to the business community and political leadership – something Pollak does not have and would not be able to establish or cultivate.”