This is revisionism. The US government was one of the biggest supporters of the South African apartheid regime. There are important things that USAID has done in SA since 1994 - including on HIV mitigation - that perhaps include funding civil society and dismantling initiatives after 1989. - ThreadSky

nanjala.bsky.social • 20 days ago

This is revisionism. The US government was one of the biggest supporters of the South African apartheid regime. There are important things that USAID has done in SA since 1994 - including on HIV mitigation - that perhaps include funding civil society and dismantling initiatives after 1989.

Reposted from Maya Contreras

Elon Musk wanting to dismantle the #USAID is starting to make sense. Just pure unmitigated revenge by “Apartheid Clyde.”

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wikisteff.bsky.social•20 days ago

I recall it like this article says: US has mixed support for apartheid in the 1970s and 1980s, turns to opposition in 1986 with the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, and the last US conservative holdouts fall away after Cuba's withdrawal from Angola in 1988.

https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/pcw/98678.htm#:~:text=His%20successor%2C%20F%20W%20de%20Klerk,South%20Africa's%20first%20black%20president.&text=You%20are%20entering%20the%202001,visit%20www.state.gov.

wikisteff.bsky.social•20 days ago

That could absolutely be propaganda (State Department, natch), but that's about how it played out in the news at the time.

nanjala.bsky.social•20 days ago

It is. US sanctions didn’t come into play until the 1980s - well after both the Sharpeville and Soweto massacres and the institutionalisation of racial segregation. Reagan in particular pushed for “constructive engagement” with the apartheid regime. Also this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7340248.stm

wikisteff.bsky.social•20 days ago

Oh yeah, I *do* remember Reagan's shameful support of the regime, that's one of the reasons my family hated him.

rheinze.bsky.social•20 days ago

Also the whole "still providing weapons to SA despite sanctions" (cf. van Vuuren's book)

nanjala.bsky.social•20 days ago

Yup. And refusing to support divestment campaigns while punishing domestic activism in favour of it.

rheinze.bsky.social•20 days ago

💯

nanjala.bsky.social•20 days ago

That’s why I said after 1989 to allude to the end of the Cold War- the US approach was to treat the apartheid regime first and foremost as an ally in the resistance against communism. There was variation between presidencies but to act as if USAID was critical to ending apartheid is disingenuous.

empressdlion.bsky.social•20 days ago

Yup!

gabriellehecht.bsky.social•20 days ago

Massive revisionism

As for the land issue: Musk is deliberately conflating Zimbabwe and South Africa, using the recent (totally toothless) edict as cover

buhle.online•20 days ago

Thank you. Facts still matter.

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