The ANC now faces the cold winds of disapproval which it is struggling to deal with, in part because it is now so full of its brand of sanctimonious ideological bunkum that it can't see straight.

In a distorted mirror image of Pik Botha's missions to sell the "good intentions" of South Africa during apartheid to the US, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor has been on a mission to sell her government's somewhat bedraggled foreign policy.

While there are, of course, differences in time, ideology and posture, there are some striking resemblances.

During the apartheid years, the government regularly defended its importance to the West based on a similar argument to the one Pandor is making today -- the strategic importance of South Africa's location and economy.

And like her pre-1994 predecessor, she has penned well-placed op-eds. In a Financial Times article, she argues: "Seeking to bring South Africa to its knees almost amounts to self-sabotage for the US. We were a key driver in the formulation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and now of its implementation. Given that AfCFTA creates the largest single free trade area in the world, with 1.3bn people and a combined gross domestic product of $3.4tn, it would be advantageous for the US to capitalise on such opportunities, and work with us as a gateway to the continent."

This is naïve in the extreme. First, the...