Practising principled ethics in US- SA diplomatic relations

Mcebisi Jonas delivered the 11th annual Ahmed Kathrada Lecture on 8 November 2020 ~ five days after Donald Trump lost a seminal election to Joe Biden and four days after prematurely declaring himself the winner.

- Redi Tlabi

There was an immediate, scathing, bipartisan rebuke, with some of Trump's strongest allies pushing back and warning of a political crisis.

It is in this context that South Africa’s former deputy finance minister and newly announced special envoy to the US spoke. When Jonas gave his broad lecture, titled Hope After State Capture — Towards an Agenda for Change, America had chosen its president. It was not Trump.

This matters; it matters a great deal. The political moment could not be ignored.

It is worth remembering what was happening in the US at that time. The economy was in decline, affected in part by the Covid-19 pandemic. There was a significant concern about long-term unemployment and reduced consumer spending.

The nation was also in mourning. The murder of George Floyd at the hands of white police officers ripped open America’s long-festering wound of racism. Black Lives Matter (BLM) erupted on the streets like a haunting elegy. Trump did not calm the storm, but labelled BLM “a symbol of hate”.

It was in this context that Jonas warned against “nationalist populism”, adding that “these are the tendencies we must collectively fight against as we build a new consensus around which society must rally”.

Out of focus