The United States House of Representatives is reviewing a bill that calls for a reassessment of the country’s relationship with South Africa, amid tensions between the nations. The US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act alleges that the African National Congress (ANC) has had ties with Hamas since 1994, when the ANC party first came to power. The bill also identifies South Africa’s “robust relationship with Russia” which “spans the military and political space” and the country’s interactions with the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill has not yet been voted on, but passed the House Committee of Foreign Affairs on a voice vote last week.
Most experts say this bill is not likely to break the US-South Africa relationship. Joel Samoff, a retired adjunct professor at the Center for African Studies at Stanford University, said both South Africa and the US view their relationship as important and that he expected they would seek to maintain it.