Arms provided by NATO and the US are being used in terrorist activities, both globally and in Africa.
This is according to senior African National Congress (ANC) officials at a media briefing on Monday ahead of the ruling party’s National General Council (NGC )in October.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the ANC’s Obet Bapela (also deputy minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs) and Ayanda Ndodlo (also deputy minister of Public Service and Administration) were outspoken in their critique of the US, echoing the sentiments of the ruling party’s recently-released policy discussion documents.
According to Bapela, the US uses strong-arm tactics in its foreign policy engagement, while looking out for their own narrow interest. He cited examples of warn-torn countries like Iran where the US had successfully signed business deals once sanctions were relaxed. He said arms provided by the US and NATO are now being used by terrorist globally.
NATO is a political and military alliance which sets out its primary purpose to be to “safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.” Member states include the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), and Germany.
Click below to watch Bapane speak on the use of US arms by terrorists, as well as some of the reasons the ANC is looking to China for partnerships.
Ndlodlo was also outspoken in her belief that US arms are fuelling terrorist tensions. Speaking at the same briefing, she said that there have been two major arms proliferation surges over the past 50 years.
The first, she says, was to arm African – and ANC – freedom fighters with weapons, coming from the Soviet bloc and Asia, but which she asserts was used to bring about democracy.
She says the second, recent wave can be seen in countries like Afghanistan, Syria, and Libia. “The origin of these arms is the West,” says Ndlodlo, “and it does not have liberation as a result, but an escalation of terrorism and the firm entrenchment of the ISIS body.”
She says people are fleeing their countries of birth in droves, and one has to look at the reasons behind this. “Countries are giving arms to rebels that are destabilising Africa, that are being used against civilians. And the origin of these arms are the NATO block,” says Dlodlo.
In its policy discussion documents, released ahead of the ANC NGC 2015, the ruling party takes a very critical stance towards the US. It speaks of the States controlling a unipolar world, whereas the ANC wants to move to a multi-polar power sharing reality globally through the emergence of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations.
It says Western countries have become the epicentre of the world economic crisis, and that “the capitalist market economy cannot resolve its own contradictions.”
It says the US has been using aggressive tactics when dealing with foreign affairs, and: “in most instances it has been supporting undemocratic changes of government as an instrument to serve its global agenda.”
Later on it states: “Washington’s sponsored destabilisation is not limited to Russia and China. We see it unfolding in the street of Latin America, including in Venezuela, which the US has strangely declared a threat to its ‘national security’, in the Middle East and in African countries with the sole intention of toppling a progressive democratically-elected governments.
“This has a bearing on the nature of conflict and the scourge of terrorism we see in the world today.”
China, on the other hand, is seen as a rising super-power in the policy discussion documents. It states: “China’s economic development trajectory remains a leading example of the triumph of humanity over adversity.
“The exemplary role of the collective leadership of the Communist Party of China in this regard should be a guiding lodestar of our own struggle.”
It says that in the face of a gloomy political and economic picture painted in the West, “the rise of the emerging economies, led by China, is the world economy had heralded a new dawn of hope for further possibilities of a new world order.
“The growing influence of China on the global economy is an important factor in the balance of global power relations.”
– By Christelle du Toit
