ANC Deputy President Paul Mashatile has called on South Africans not to bow before the White House despite the Donald Trump administration’s crippling 30% tariff slapped on SA exports to the US.
Mashatile said the country must look to the East for alternative trade partners such as China, Russia and India, among others, and disregard Trump with his agenda for regime change in South Africa.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile, whose political posturing is getting bolder with every opportunity to speak publicly, was addressing the ANC Youth League national general council (NGC) in Kimberly on Wednesday.
“We have learned from other countries such as the Asian tigers — Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea — who have successfully grown their economies in a relatively short space of time. We too can do it; things are and have been changing. South Africa must have a story of its own to tell,” said Mashatile.
“As the Trump administration imposes 30% tariffs on SA goods, we must explore destinations and diversify our markets. We must, therefore, engage countries like China, India, Russia and countries in the East and the European Union.
“We must, however, continue to engage the US to achieve an agreement that will be beneficial to our country. We should, however, not go to the White House on our knees begging,” he continued to loud cheers and ululations from approving delegates.
“We know, comrades, that the agenda of Trump is actually regime change; we know that. So, we must never go there and feel defeated, but we will engage them.”
Economic freedom
Mashatile called on the young lions, as ANC Youth League members are known, to continue the fight for economic freedom in their lifetime.
An ANC presidential hopeful who was endorsed by delegates through the song “phakama Mashatile, ixesha lifikile” before taking podium, he emphasised that this fight must imagine a South Africa that is totally liberated by 2055.
That year will be exactly 100 years since the adoption of the Freedom Charter document, a blueprint of a South Africa like Canaan, the land of milk and honey, where all benefit from the fruits of freedom.
Said Mashatile: “I urge you, comrade delegates, to cast your eyes beyond 2030 and think of a South Africa we want by 2055 which will be the centenary of the Freedom Charter.
“In this regard, we must revisit the Freedom Charter and internalise what it envisioned for South Africa. The Youth League must organise activities that will draw young people to learn and act in line with the vision of the Freedom Charter. When 2055 arrives, the ANC Youth League and the ANC must be able to share a story of victory, a story of hope, and a story that resembles the future society it envisaged.”
Mashatile said this would be the best gift to the heroic men and women who had died in the struggle to liberate the majority of the people of the land.
SOS to youth
Meanwhile, earlier in the same event, ANC Northern Cape provincial chairperson Zamani Saul challenged the Youth League NGC delegates to chart a way on how they can act to save the embattled ANC at the NGC billed for December.
“The ANC again is at the crossroads, and we are calling on the Youth League, once more, to intervene decisively. Out of this Kimberly NGC, we expect the ANC Youth League to emerge with a radical program of action to rescue the movement,” said Saul.
