South Africa’s ruling party is trying to have its biltong and eat it too. African National Congress (ANC) leaders have indicated a desire to repair relations with the United States but continue cozying up to the enemies of the West.
Most recently, on March 4, Nomvula Mokonyane, the ANC’s first deputy secretary-general, hosted the Iranian ambassador to South Africa at the ANC’s headquarters. Mokonyane called Iran a “fraternal” country that she is “proud to associate with” and declared, “We can’t hide our friends when they actually identified with us, in the most difficult times of our history.”
The ANC, the ruling party in South Africa since the fall of apartheid, has hemorrhaged support in recent years, forcing it into a government of national unity with its chief rival, the Western-oriented Democratic Alliance (DA).
Attempts to Mend Ties With the U.S.
While the ANC was meeting with the Iranian delegation, DA representatives undertook a weeklong visit to Washington to improve ties with the U.S. government. Relations have been tense since President Donald Trump signed an executive order on February 7 cutting aid to Pretoria over the country’s recently enacted land expropriation law. The executive order also cited South Africa’s warm ties with Iran and its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as further causes for concern. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his desire to improve relations with Washington but has not indicated a willingness to cut ties with Iran or to halt its lawfare campaign against the Jewish state.
The ANC and Pretoria’s Relations With Bad Actors
Mokonyane is a party official and not an elected member of parliament, affording Pretoria a certain degree of deniability so it can claim the meeting does not reflect the policy of the government. Similarly, the ANC secretary-general — not government ministers — met with Hamas representatives in Johannesburg just two months after the Iran-backed terrorist group carried out its October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.
But Pretoria and the ANC have not always maintained this firewall. On October 17, just 10 days after the attack on Israel, Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s then foreign minister and a member of the ANC, spoke by telephone with Ismail Haniyeh, the now deceased chairman of Hamas’s political bureau. A Hamas delegation visited South Africa again in May 2024 and allegedly met with Pandor.
Nor has Iran’s role as Hamas’s chief sponsor prevented Pretoria from seeking ever closer ties. Last month, a senior South African government minister said the country could turn to Russia or Iran to expand its civilian nuclear program. This is especially concerning amid Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapon and Russia’s threats to use its nuclear arsenal.
Meanwhile, a group of 160 lawyers has demanded that the U.S. government investigate allegations that Iran bribed South Africa to launch its ICJ case. The lawyers suggest that Iran offered to pay off the ANC’s crippling debt during Pandor’s visit to Iran two weeks after Hamas’s invasion of Israel.
South Africa’s ties with Iran are not the only cause for concern; Pretoria has grown closer to China and Russia in recent years. Ramaphosa visited Russia in October 2024 as part of the annual summit of BRICS, an anti-Western, China-dominated intergovernmental organization. Also in October — likely due to Chinese pressure — South Africa asked Taiwan to move its unofficial embassy out of Pretoria. Further signaling its place in the anti-Western bloc, the rainbow nation hosted the 2023 BRICS summit.
ANC and Pretoria Should Face Consequences Undermining U.S. National Security
The ANC would do well to find new friends, particularly to replace Iran and Hamas. Until then, the Trump administration should investigate the Iran bribery allegation related to the ICJ investigation and consider imposing sanctions on ANC officials who provide support to Iran. Additionally, the administration should assess whether ANC-led South Africa’s malign influence impacts its eligibility for participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act free trade program, which is up for reauthorization this year and requires participants to not “undermine U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.”
David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow David on X@DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X@FDD.