This is not Africa’s war — the West’s racism makes that clear

It was, at first, completely predictable and banal. Isn’t fence-sitting a South African sport? The very reason we seem to be going nowhere slowly? And so, I thought, no-one should be surprised that our government decided to sit on the fence as Russia eviscerated Ukraine. SA initially called for Russia to withdraw from

Ukraine, but its later texts veered in the opposite direction, encouraging dialogue between the parties but remaining non-committal about who is wrong or right. Such moral cowardice, I thought.

“South Africa cannot be seen to be taking sides in a conflict as this goes against its principles. In addition, SA has good bilateral relations with both countries,” deputy minister of international relations & co-operation Candith Mashego-Dlamini told MPs this week in a bid to explain the confusing signals from Pretoria.

When the UN General Assembly required members to vote, we couldn’t find the courage to condemn Russia. This appeared to be in line with general expectations of a fence-sitter. Pretoria’s approach to dealing with repression across the Limpopo River was called “quiet diplomacy”.

Standing on a hilltop with a loud-hailer and condemning the dictator in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, would not resolve the intractable issues that required the parties to — there we go again — sit down.

Well, they sat down and, decades later, that foreign policy failure has spawned new political parties focused on migration, and regulations have now been published seeking to keep the many Zimbabweans in SA out of jobs.

Our government is a legendary fence-sitter. Think of major decisions that need to be taken to introduce fundamental changes in our country. The land question will not be resolved soon because the ruling elite is comfortable on the fence while massaging black pain and landlessness (even as it sees it is gradually losing elections).

Think of racism or economic structural reforms. There are many things we know we should be doing, most of them contained in the National Development Plan, that will help us confront inequality and poverty. We simply lack the courage to do them.

And so, as Russia reduced Ukraine to a ghost land, turning many overnight into refugees, that courage, on the surface, seemed to escape Pretoria once more.

At a level of principle, we should be able to condemn Russian president Vladimir Putin for starting a war that is unnecessary.

But, as I watched the pummelling of Ukraine, I thought the decision to sit it out was correct, even if for reasons different to those the South African government announced. Pretoria is talking about the need for dialogue and preservation of our bilateral relations. In truth though, the war between Russia and Ukraine is Europe’s war. We should not get excited. Africa always gets the short end of the stick from the world. Africa must now prioritise itself.

When that war ends, Europeans will unite and rebuild. They always unite — and consistently exclude Africa. Look at the recently ended coronavirus pandemic. Remember how Europe prioritised itself, hoarding vaccines, ensuring over-supply for itself? Remember how President Cyril Ramaphosa repeatedly complained to multilateral organisations about “vaccine apartheid” as they sat on the fence?

Truth be told, when it comes to the crunch they drop us and pursue self-interest like we don’t matter.

The spine-chillingly racist treatment of Africans we witnessed this week at the hands of border police in Ukraine is in keeping with how Africa is treated.

It’s not enough they must run from the madman of Russian politics, they must also run from the racist Ukrainian train queue marshals. Once they get to hotels across the border they, like the rest of us, must make sense of the words of Ukraine’s deputy chief prosecutor David Sakvarelidze: “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed.”

Wait, what? If not those with “blue eyes and blonde hair”, then who? The dark-skinned people of Africa? The black-haired of India and the Middle East? The answer came from ITV reporter Lucy Watson: “The unthinkable has happened ... this is not a developing, third-world nation. This is Europe.”

The racism isn’t just in how we are denied vaccines until they’re about to expire, how we are kicked off queues while running from Putin’s bombs, or how we are insulted by ignorant and bigoted commentators on the war. It is also how the global system treats Africans in particular and the poor of the Global South in general. Our poverty and this racism disqualify us from having a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. We are just good to come in when the big boys want us to “condemn” their neighbours who have become uncontrollable.

This, I say, is not our war. Africa should not lose sleep over Ramaphosa’s administration sitting on the fence as people who find bombings “unthinkable” when they involve “people with blue eyes and blonde hair” imply they are OK when unleashed in Africa or the Middle East. It would be the height of folly to prioritise people who think like this about us. For a change, I must say, it’s OK to sit on that fence.

While everyone is focused on the war in Ukraine, we, in SA, also have many different wars we must wage at home. Instead of pulling our not-so-blonde hair about who to condemn, we should be focused on winning this war against unemployment.

For a change, I must say, it’s OK to sit on that fence