This might well turn out to be a comeback of biblical proportions — this return of the Orange Man, Donald Trump, to the seat of power in the US, the White House.
It is a position often referred to as the most powerful in the world, as the president of the United States leads the last of the traditional superpowers.
But what does the return of Trump to the presidency, unprecedented as it is, mean for Africa, and South Africa in particular? Should the continent be shaking like a leaf as the day of inauguration draws near? Is there cause to worry?
We don’t have ready answers, but we hope and hold out for the best. One thing that is guaranteed for sure is that the world is in for another tumultuous ride if Trump’s first stint in power was anything to go by.
There may well also be cause for concern since many who are bothered with these types of things will recall how he once called African countries an unmentionable (in African culture) part of the anatomy.
That’s the maverick now firmly in hold of the reins and ready to mount what could be a wild horse.
The global landscape Trump is returning to after a four-year break is a totally different terrain from the one he bequeathed the world when he was defeated by Joe Biden in 2020.
First, the Covid-19 pandemic, which he stubbornly referred to as the “Chinese virus” in his ill-advised onslaught on a modern-day superpower that is fast overtaking America as the biggest economy in the world.
Trump has made no secret of his disdain for China, if for nothing obvious but racial reasons, pure envy and clamour for outdated white supremacist drivel.
But the juggernaut that is China has churned along with scant regard for Western empirical ambitions and sought to establish an alternative world hegemony.
This brings us to Brics, a geopolitical global formation of which SA and China are members, affording us the opportunity on behalf of the continent to punch way above our weight in terms of the size of our economy.
Small as we may be juxtaposed to economic giants that are Brazil, Russia, India and China, South Africa remains a very important Brics component, affording it a gateway into Africa, which is no doubt where the future lies, only if the continent’s leaders could catch a wake-up call.
This on its own pits Africa as a proxy battleground should Trump resume his onslaught on China. It is on the strength of this that we hope the patchwork we have for a government in the form of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government of national unity plays its cards right.
We hope the neo-liberal element, which seems to have a dominant say in the set-up, doesn’t hold sway and make SA dance to Uncle Sam’s tune to the detriment of progress made under the Brics umbrella.
The future lays very much outside of the West, and we must therefore box cleverly and always seek to place our interests, and those of other African countries that have also sought to join Brics, ahead of everything else, regardless of the bum (pun intended) placed on a chair in the Oval Office.
