'We don't need enemies', says Thabo Mbeki as he urges government to resolve tensions with US
He has also rejected ideas of the country having good relations only with its biggest trade partner.
FILE: Former president Thabo Mbeki in Conakry, Guinea for his annual Africa Day lecture on 25 May 2023. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Former president Thabo Mbeki is again calling for South Africa to resolve its current tensions with the United States.
He says the country has too many problems to be nurturing enemies.
He has also rejected ideas of the country having good relations only with its biggest trade partner.
Mbeki believes serious engagement with the Donald Trump administration might even save the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
AGOA is a US congress-sponsored act which gives select African countries duty free access to American markets.
He was speaking to students at Unisa on Friday.
While he touched on a range of geo-political tensions, he gave South Africa’s current frosty relations with the US most of his attention.
"Personally, it’s a matter that worries me because as a country we don’t need enemies. We have too many problems for us to be nurturing enemies of any kind."
Mbeki then shared his thoughts on the country’s foreign policy which has been subject of fierce debate between political parties.
He says the country must always seek to have friendly and mutual cooperation.
The former president says South Africa should avoid entering into bilateral agreements as a way of opposing other countries
"The idea that you have to choose this one rather than that one, we can’t accept that. As a country, we need to build good relations with the US, good relations with China, good relations with everybody, that’s how we should come at it. The notion that you must have better relations with the one whom you have more trade than the one whom you don’t I think is wrong."