Mbalula reiterates that SA’s policies will not be dictated by Trump

African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has reiterated that South Africa’s policies will not be dictated by US President Donald Trump.

This is after Trump upped the ante in his engagements with Pretoria by withdrawing all officials from attending the G20 Summit and intimating that the country should not be part the economic group.

Mbalula was speaking to the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday following a meeting of the ANC’s National Working Committee.

“To be punished and singled out for economic sanctions by Donald Trump and thinking that we will abandon our ideas because of that, we’ve been there before. We are ready for that. Because that’s why we were formed. If we are to be punished for fighting for redress and social transformation in our country and advancing for equity in our country, as the African National Congress, for the reason why we were formed as an organisation, let it be,” says Mbalula.

In other international news, the ANC has called for government to spare no effort in investigating under whose authority 17 South Africans were recruited to fight in the Ukraine-Russia war.

The men, who are trapped in the war-torn Donbas region of Ukraine, have sent distress calls to Pretoria.