Johannesburg - ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has acknowledged that South Africa could become a failed state should the leaders continue to fail to resolve load shedding and other challenges in the country.
In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC’s HardTalk host, Stephen Sackur, he conceded that the country was also battling high levels of corruption in the midst of unprecedented power cuts, which had contributed to the country’s challenges.
“If certain things are not resolved, we will become a failed state, but we are not journeying in that direction,” Mbalula said in the exclusive interview.
He said these challenges, which the ANC government was trying to resolve through a myriad interventions, including the state capture inquiry and the work being done by the Special Investigating Unit, were clear signs of a functioning democratic country that was prepared to move the country forward.
“It is the government of the ANC that established the state capture inquiry. This did not fall from the sky. South Africa is undergoing challenges like many other countries, but I think to put it in the category of a failed state is an exaggeration,” he said.
He said what had compounded the country’s woes was not only corruption, but forces such as global economics, the impact of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, which had put the country in a difficult situation.
With regard to the BRICS Summit later this year, Mbalula said if it was up to the ANC, Russian President Vladimir Putin would be given a warm welcome as early as tomorrow.
In March this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant of arrest for Putin over alleged war crimes during the Russia-Ukraine war.
“If it were according to the ANC, we would want President Putin here even tomorrow. Of course, we will welcome President Putin. We will welcome him to come here as part and parcel of BRICS, but we know that we are constrained by the ICC in terms of doing that. Putin is a head of state. Do you think that a head of state can be arrested anywhere? How many crimes has the UK committed in Iraq?” Mbalula added.
He called for the UK and its leaders to also answer for the millions of Iraqi and Afghan residents who had died in wars waged by Western countries. This, he said, included former British prime minister Tony Blair’s raiding of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.
“How many crimes has everyone else who is so vocal today committed in Iraq and Afghanistan? Have you arrested Tony Blair? You are making a lot of noise about Putin instead of working for peace between Ukraine and Russia, and you fail to resolve this war.
“Tony Blair went to Iraq and claimed there were weapons of mass destruction. Did you see anybody standing against that in the UK? More than a million people have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there are no weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
South Africa, which is the BRICS chair for 2023, is scheduled to host Brazil, China, India and Russia at the summit in August.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin if he attends the BRICS Summit, an obligation to which the ANC has been trying to find a solution for the past few months.
Mbalula also told Sackur that the ANC had given the government a mandate to end load shedding before the end of the year. “This load shedding has just made a mess of our country and projected us as something else,” he said.
The Star