I am writing this opinion piece with an emotional but objective mood. As I write, the BRICS Summit had just commenced at Sandton in Johannesburg.
The interference of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, popularly known as NATO, in conflicts in other regions or parts of the world, needs to be stopped at all costs. If I can take you two months back, I wrote an opinion article titled "Africa has made Europe rich", and I stand by my opinion and analysis of how world politics unravel.
As members of BRICS, South Africa is supposed to fully support a fellow member against any international threats, irrespective of the circumstances. The West threatened South Africa with economic sanctions if Russian President Vladimir Putin was to attend the currently underway BRICS Summit.
The International Criminal Court had issued a warrant of arrest for him and was expecting South Africa to arrest him once he landed at the now-cancelled host city of Cape Town.
One primary reason for the venue change was that the Premier of the Western Cape, Allan Linde, declared that he would effect the arrest of Putin if he were to fly down there. Unbeknown to him and his white European funders, who amassed wealth at the expense of the aboriginal citizens of this country and the continent at large, BRICS and Putin had another idea.
Given the abundance of technological communication methods, President Putin is now attending the summit virtually. Since the announcement, I have wondered what could have happened if the summit was not held on the African continent. Would the situation have been handled differently? Would the ICC have instructed any other country, such as Brazil, China or India, to arrest Putin? I don't think so.
I am perturbed by the involvement of the United States of America in conflicts with other countries which do not affect them. The fallacy that they involve themselves in such conflicts to protect their interests does not sit well with me. Firstly, I need to know which interests they are referring to. In our country, we had Anglo-American and American Swiss. These companies were established to mine our minerals, export them, refine them and come to sell them to us at exorbitant prices. Just imagine, in practicality, somebody invades your yard, sets up a garden and sells you the vegetables from that garden which operates in your yard.
I am quite disturbed that the US had set up a platoon base in Botswana. Knowing the Batswana and their particularity, I do not believe they voluntarily agreed to that setup. Instead, I suspect they were bulldozed into agreeing to that by the United Kingdom, an ally of America. Botswana is the leading beef exporter to Britain and its other business partners.
The main objective for the Americans to set up base in Botswana, is that they want to protect what they claim is their interests in South Africa, nothing else. Why would they set up a base so far away? It has been four years now that I have been pondering over this status quo.
The US and its allies have shown that they do not want to see other countries or economic bloc regions be independent and sovereign without them being part. This is one of the reasons why Britain has walked away from the European Union as a member.
Sometimes I agree with those who advocate for the land to be expropriated and returned to its original owners without compensation. No one of European descent came to this continent owning a piece of land. Yet they are now the ones whom we buy that land from.
I hope this summit reflects how European countries perceive Africa and their inhumane policies, such as apartheid.
