Foreign policy mess

DEAR SIR — Further to Aubrey Matshiqi’s column (Winning the foreign policy battle begins at home, April 8), South African foreign policy is a mess for two reasons.

First, the Mbeki construct of “Africa” is based on a false premise that the countries in the region known as Africa have the same interests. Some of those countries may well have similar interests, but only within their various groupings; Southern, Francophone, Anglophone, Arab, Muslim, Western, Eastern and so on. There is no reason on earth why all those countries should speak with one voice, nor especially that SA should be that voice.

Second, doing anything that appears to be the opposite of what the West would prefer is no substitute for a rational foreign policy, whether it is to get in the same corner with Hamas or Iran, or pick fights with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation over the very necessary intervention in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire. Is SA still a child rebelling against a parent, or an adult with its own opinions based on reason and interests?