South Africa’s failure to condemn the tyrants in Africa, Iran and elsewhere harms its own interests

We need to live up to Nelson Mandela’s promise that “human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs”.

February 05, 2026 at 05:00 am

By Greg Mills, Financial Mail

It’s been a bad month for African democrats.

In False Bay in January, South Africa joined China, Iran, Russia and the UAE in a naval exercise that was not, by any stretch of the imagination, in support of democratic values and principles.

China rates 9/100 on Freedom House’s Freedom in the World index, which analyses “electoral process, political pluralism and participation, the functioning of the government, freedom of expression and of belief, associational and organisational rights, the rule of law, and personal autonomy and individual rights”. Iran is at 11/100, the UAE at 18/100 and Russia at 12/100. South Africa is at 81/100.

This is one of the biggest challenges South Africa faces in Brics, where our interests do not coincide with our values. This demands a delicate balancing act between doing business and political relations.

But there are some things that we cannot balance.

The sight of Iran’s military speedboats running around off one of the country’s most important tourist destinations is unthinkable. And yet it happened. This type of boat is typically used by irregular forces to attack larger vessels and even oil platforms.

Elsewhere in Africa, in the wake of October’s massacre in Tanzania, which masqueraded as an election, Uganda staged its own version on January 15.

This event offered Ugandans a choice between two futures. One represented continuity in the form of the 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni, who seized power 40 years ago. The other option was for change, embodied by Bobi Wine, 43. His campaign braved a state-directed onslaught by means of incessant intimidation, detentions, beatings, teargassing and water cannon assaults.

Museveni “won” hands down for a seventh term.

Wine is now on the run from Museveni’s forces, headed by the president’s son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba. In various tweetstorms, Kainerugaba has threatened to castrate and behead the opposition leader. Claiming that 22 supporters of Wine’s National Unity Platform had already been killed, he recently tweeted, in reference to Wine: “I’m praying the 23rd is Kabobi.”

South Africa’s department of international relations, controlled by the ANC, has kept schtum on this. This contrasts with the hastily issued statement condemning the US toppling of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, another hero in the ANC pantheon. Venezuela rated 14/100 on Freedom House’s 2025 index.

Apparently Ugandan lives don’t matter. As for the 36,500 Iranians reported by Iran International to have been murdered by the Tehran regime in street protests over the past month, too bad

Apparently Ugandan lives don’t matter. As for the 36,500 Iranians reported by Iran International to have been murdered by the Tehran regime in street protests over the past month, too bad. South Africa recently abstained in a vote in the UN Human Rights Council condemning Tehran’s violence, with Pretoria citing concerns about external interference.

Despite Pretoria’s apparent belief that foreign policy offers a cost-free realm to pursue tokenism and radicalism, the costs of such cynicism can only increase, and not necessarily due to US-led opprobrium.

It will cost South Africa in its own African backyard, where the empirical record is clear: the better the democracy, the higher the level of prosperity.

Uganda’s authoritarianism has damaged its ability to deliver to its growing cohort of young people. More than 85% of the country’s 50-million population are younger than 25. Yet the individual income of Ugandans is today less than $990, or lower than two-thirds of the African average. Surveys have shown that 90% of Ugandans reject one-party rule, and more than 80% prefer democracy.

African democrats have nowhere to turn for solace and help, increasing the likelihood of the twin forces of unrest and migration.

Led by the AU, continental agencies routinely close ranks around incumbents at the expense of ordinary Africans. International organisations apathetically issue weak condemnations.

South Africa should position itself as a preferred partner to the democratic world and a thorn in the side of autocrats everywhere. We should be guided by our values and history, regardless of what outsiders think or how they behave.

Democracy is something countless South Africans fought for, and many gave their lives. It cannot be sacrificed in the rush to make friends with Museveni’s Uganda, the mullahs in Iran and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

It’s time we realised that in foreign policy, our principles are our interests, and vice versa. We need to live up to Nelson Mandela’s promise that “human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs”.