Who we friend is our business
Let’s get one thing straight: South Africa is a grown-up country. We don’t need a permission slip from Washington to decide who we can have over for tea.
The recent fuss over SA National Defence Force chief Gen Rudzani Maphwanya’s visit to Iran is a perfect exam-ple of the nonsense we have to endure. So the man went to talk to his counterparts in a sovereign nation. So what?
The visit was authorised by the defence mini-ster, the one we voted for, not some official in a distant capital who still thinks the world is their empire.
The usual choir will screech about Iran’s pariah status. But since when did the US, with its own list of dubious allies, become the global hall monitor? We will engage with who we want. Our foreign policy is not for sale, and our sovereignty is not up for debate. We choose our friends based on our interests, not on a script written by others.
