The South African government seems to believe that if it claims frequently enough that it runs a principled foreign policy, the world will simply accept it as true. It’s categorically untrue, however. Consider the whopper President Ramaphosa tells below amid his condemnations of the US and Israel over the Iran War: “We have taken a principled stance which is consistent with our independent foreign policy. We have continued to support those nations that are struggling for self-determination.” Let’s check SA’s consistency in supporting nations “struggling for self-determination.” It: --Abstained on every resolution condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. --Refused to condemn Russia by name for its invasion of Georgia and abstained on UN resolutions that did so. --Hasn’t condemned, and implicitly supports, China’s assault on its neighbors in the South China Sea despite a 2016 international court ruling against China. So, SA won’t condemn its partner’s violation of others’ sovereignty in defiance of the international law it claims to so revere. --Won’t condemn Iran or Hezbollah for the latter’s occupation of parts of Lebanon. As I point out frequently, the only way to make sense of the SA government’s rhetoric about its principled foreign policy is that the principle in question is anti-Westernism. If a particular situation, such as the current Iran war, gives it an opportunity to attack the West or especially the US or Israel, it will do so. If the situation reflects badly on its fellow anti-Western ideologues, such as in the cases cited above, it will ignore or equivocate. SA’s foreign policy is purely political. The world needs to stop buying its propaganda about principled action.