Reading Prince Mashele’s 24 June 2019 article in the Sowetan titled “New World Order looms amid US trade war with China, but SA seems clueless,” demonstrates that Mashele is learning something. His article is different from the one he wrote in the Sowetan of 12 September 2016 under the headline, “Disorder now the SA theme” in which he extolled the virtues of Henry Kissinger, a proponent of the “new world order” which he now decries.

Responding to Mashele’s 12 September 2016 article, I wrote, inter alia, that “This new world order is a dictatorial one-world government which, if Mashele could know about, he would not publicise Kissinger’s ideas and books. Mashele does not understand that when the likes of Kissinger suggest that the world is disorderly, they are subtly enjoining the US and other western powers through NATO and the UN to be the world’s policeman and take unilateral action as they have done in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Their objective is also to get the world’s resources from the developing countries https://africanexecutive.com/article/read/9144 .

Mashele’s opening and closing paragraphs need attention. He writes, “We South Africans are so consumed by the mess of our politics that we rarely take time to make sense of what is going on around the world.”

My response to his 12 September 2016 article and the recent one published in Sowetan of 29 April, 2019 about his visit to South Korea in which he described Kim Jong Un as a madman clearly demonstrate that there are South Africans who always take time to make sense of what is going on around the world https://africanexecutive.com/article/read/10124 .

Can’t Mashele come to terms with the reality that the North Korean leader is resisting the “new world order”? His closing paragraph reads, “Unfortunately, there is no evidence that either our intellectually bland president or our tired international relations minister has a clue.”

It does not seem to me that “our intellectually bland president” or “our tired international relations minister” are any different from their predecessors. For example, Mashele’s favourite holy cow, Nelson Mandela, delivered a speech at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) Chatham House conference titled 'South Africa: The Opportunity for Business', on 10 July 1996. If Mashele does not know, RIIA like the US’s Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), are proponents of the “new world order.” Not only has Mandela addressed RIIA but also the CFR. Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and, if my memory serves me well, Kgalema Motlanthe also addressed the CFR.

I do not know if “our intellectually bland president" has addressed RIIA and CFR but would not be surprised if he did. However, I know that like all his predecessors, he has met the Queen of England, a leading representative and an embodiment of British imperialism and the "new world order" just like Prince Bernard and Queen Beatrix of the Dutch royal family who donated Shell House building to the ANC.

It is not only ANC leaders who hobnob with proponents of the “new world order” but also some leaders of opposition political parties. EFF leader Julius Malema, for example, also addressed RIIA in late 2015 under the Chatham House rule which means his speech cannot be made public.

Doesn’t Mashele know that South Africa’s negotiated settlement was an imperialist brokered deal? Moreover, all US leaders and ruling elite who openly spoke about and pursued the “new world order” such as the late George Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and David Rockefeller were very close to Nelson Mandela. David Rockefeller contributed to the ANC’s 1994 election campaign and visited Nelson Mandela in South Africa more than once.

Mashele should not selectively condemn imperialism and the “new world order” like a person who has just discovered that imperialism is bad. He ignores to write about South African leaders who condemned imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy such as PAC founding President Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Zeph Mothopeng, Onkgopotse Tiro and many others.

It is encouraging that he is now learning.

By Sam Ditshego

sam412d@gmail.com