The Fall of Morocco’s Bet on Western Sahara in South Africa 

South Africa’s position on the Sahrawi issue will remain the same, contrary to what the Moroccan regime has been betting on since the general elections that took place about a month ago, in which the ruling African National Congress did not achieve the absolute majority that would allow it to run the state of South Africa alone, as has been the norm since then. For more than two decades.
The Moroccan regime’s bet on a change in South Africa’s strong position in support of the rights of the Sahrawi people had increased, based on its elites and circles close to it, because the election results forced the ruling party to ally with other parties that may not agree with the Congress Party in its unconditional supportive position on the desert issue.
In recent weeks, the Moroccan regime’s media spoke of an expected change in South Africa’s position on the Western Sahara issue with the coming to power of other parties.
However, this hope was shattered by the announcement of the formation of the new government, through which the supporters of the Sahrawi cause took control of twenty portfolios, including the sovereign portfolios, headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which for decades was Pretoria’s front in confronting Moroccan colonial policies in the occupied Sahrawi territories.
The state of South Africa has become a real nightmare for the Moroccan regime on the issue of Western Sahara, so that no opportunity passes without this state raising the Sahrawi flag from international platforms, whether at the level of the United Nations or the African Union, which has disturbed and embarrassed the Moroccan regime in many ways. On one occasion, the defense of the Western Sahara issue by a country the size of South Africa, far from the Maghreb region, raised the level of justice of this issue in international forums.
Although the African National Congress, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, won only about forty percent of the recent general elections, it retained almost sixty percent of the ministerial portfolios, including sovereign ones such as the ministries of foreign affairs, defense and finance, and also the position of vice president, compared to only forty percent for the rest of the parties allied with it.
And if the Iron Lady, Naledi Pandor, leaves the Ministry of Foreign Affairs portfolio, she is one of the biggest supporters of the rights of the Sahrawi people and one of the fiercest defenders of the Palestinian cause, as she was strongly present in the criminal case filed by Pretoria against the Zionist entity in the Gaza Strip, at the level of the International Court of Justice.
However, her successor, Ronald Lamola, comes from a political background, that of the ruling Congress Party, which means that the position will remain the same as long as it is a matter of policies and positions of institutions and not of individuals.
This is expressed in the message of congratulations sent by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sahrawi Arab Republic to the new head of diplomacy of the State of South Africa, Ronald Lamola, on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in which he expressed to him his desire “to meet you personally and to work closely with you to further strengthen the relations of cooperation. And close solidarity in a way that serves our two brotherly countries and peoples and in a way that promotes the progress of our African continent”.
The last clash between the Moroccan regime and the State of South Africa dates back to last February, and the reason was due to the reception by the Pretoria authorities of the envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, an event that caused great anger among the Alawite regime in Rabat, which was demonstrated by the attack personally led by its Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, and its Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilal, on the State of South Africa.