Richard Calland
PRESSURE is growing within the Department of Foreign Affairs for the government to abandon its pro-Cuba policy.
Specialist policy advisers at the department have advised that South Africa’s policy against the United States blockade of Cuba is likely to damage relations with the US and that a shift is “necessary” to avoid antagonising that country.
A draft policy document drawn up recently by experts at the department’s Cuba desk recommends that South Africa abstain at the next United Nations vote on the issue of the continued blockade.
This would be a significant change of policy, President Nelson Mandela told parliament on August 16 that when the matter came before the UN, South Africa’s vote would be consistent with the UN General Assembly’s resolution passed in September 1993 against the blockade.
Dr Rob Davies, an ANC member of the Foreign Affairs select committee, said: “It does not surprise me that there is policy advice that is not in tune with current thinking. Evidently it comes from the old bureaucracy, which is in the process of changing.”