"Human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs. Only true democracy can guarantee rights," Nelson Mandela pledged shortly before assuming the presidency of South Africa in 1994, promising the world that the basic tenets of the anti-apartheid movement would be politicaldogma for the new Rainbow Nation. Seventeen years later, South African foreign policy is much more questionable -- and Mandela's words no longer ring quite so true. The leaders of the ruling African National Council, including Mandela himself, have pursued friendships with some of the world's most notorious democracy detractors, in Africa and beyond.
Today, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, announced that he would not attend the 80th birthday celebrations for Archbishop Desmond Tutu because the South African government had yet to grant him an entry visa. Human rights campaigners were furious and quick to blame pressure from China, which is South Africa's biggest trading partner. Tutu had invited the Dalai Lama to deliver a speech in Cape Town this week.
Above, the Dalai Lama speaks with Tutu in Brussels, Belgium in June, 2006.
About 250 protesters converged outside the South African parliament in Cape Town on the night of Oct. 3 for a candlelit vigil demanding that the Dalai Lama be allowed into the country.
South Africa's relationship with China has deepened and matured under President Jacob Zuma. In 2009, China became South Africa's biggest trading partner and in late 2010, China invited South Africa to join the "BRIC" grouping of emerging economies. Zuma joined the other BRIC leaders at a summit early this year. The invitation was surprising. South Africa's economy is miniscule compared to those of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the other BRIC members -- it's only a quarter the size of Russia's economy, which was then the smallest BRIC.
Above, Zuma meets with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing on Aug. 25, 2010. Zuma visited Beijing and Shanghai during a three-day trip he deemed "crucial."
South Africa has long been cozy with recently deposed Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, who provided support to the ANC during the anti-apartheid struggle. So when Libyan rebels took up arms to drive Qaddafi from power, the South African government was in a bit of a pickle. Despite having using violent methods to defeat apartheid, the South African government pointedly said that there was "no justification in the use of violence to solve global challenges, whether social, political or economic." Despite insisting on diplomacy as the key to stopping Libya's civil war, South Africa signed on to U.N. Resolution 1970, referring Libya to the International Criminal Court, and Resolution 1973, which allowed for "all necessary methods" to protect Libyan citizens. Yet Zuma complained about NATO's bombing campaign and unsuccessfully attempted to use the African Union (AU) to mediate the crisis. South Africa only recognized the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya on Sept. 20, nearly a month after rebel fighters captured Tripoli.
Above, Zuma shakes hands with Qaddafi after arriving in Libya on April 10. Qaddafi had accepted an AU peace plan to end the conflict, which was rejected by the rebels.
Qaddafi and South African leaders have been closely linked for years, thanks in large part to Qaddafi's deep pockets. Qaddafi supported the ANC during apartheid and later donated lavishly to ANC election campaigns. He helped pay for Winnie Mandela's defense in her 1991 kidnapping trial and also reportedly gave $2 million to Zuma for the legal bills from his 2006 rape trial.
Above, Zuma sits in the dock during his trial in the Johannesburg High Court on May 8, 2006. Zuma was acquitted of the rape charges.
One of South Africa's most awkward diplomatic dalliances has been with Zimbabwe, where former president Thabo Mbeki mediated the 2008 elections crisis. Since then, South Africa has been facilitating a solution to the power struggle between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirari. But as a March column from The Economist noted, South Africa "seems to have adopted [Mugabe's] view on the perniciousness of the West's targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe."
Above, Mbeki (left) smiles with Mugabe at the Harare airport on May 9, 2008.
South Africa had released statements calling for Burmese dissident and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest in 2009. But in 2007, when South Africa took up a seat on the U.N. Security Council, its first significant vote was joining China and Russia in opposing a U.S.-sponsored resolution to reprimand Burma for its poor human rights record and calling on the military junta to release political prisoners. Tutu, pictured above at his 75th birthday celebration in Johannesburg in 2006, condemned the vote. "It's a betrayal of our noble past," he said. "It is inexplicable."
