The ANC's South Africa has bet firmly on a dark side of history in selecting its partner of choice in the Russification of its foreign and domestic policy. Its choice is not based on human rights, or democracy, or international law. Instead, it is a choice rooted deeply in the fiction of the past, not the promise of the future.

Following another visit by a Russian delegation entertained by International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor, the ANC announced on 1 April that it would undertake a working visit to the United Russia Party from 30 March to 2 April.

The party's official notice observed that the United Russia Party, the party of Vladimir Putin, is "a longstanding ally and friend to the ANC".

It was, surprisingly, not an April Fool's gag.

In between toasts to the downfall of imperialism and the future of democratic centralism, the visit's agenda, led by Obed Bapela, the ANC's international relations subcommittee deputy chairperson and an NEC member, as well as Deputy Minister of International Relations Alvin Botes, was to include "discussions on the recalibration of the global order to reverse the consequences of neo-colonialism and the previously prevailing unipolar world".

This full mouth of caviar came after Pandor hosted Alexander Kozlov, Russia's minister of natural resources and environment, at the 17th session of the two countries' joint intergovernmental committee on trade and economic cooperation.

"There are some who don't wish us good relations with an old, historical friend," the ANC minister said in her opening address. "We have made it clear that Russia...