[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7256 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7256
To require a full review of the bilateral relationship between the
United States and South Africa.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 6, 2024
Mr. James (for himself and Mr. Moskowitz) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require a full review of the bilateral relationship between the
United States and South Africa.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``U.S.-South Africa Bilateral
Relations Review Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The actions of the African National Congress (``ANC''),
which since 1994 has held a governing majority and controlled
South Africa's executive branch, are inconsistent with its
publicly stated policy of nonalignment in international
affairs.
(2) In contrast to its stated stance of nonalignment, the
South African Government has a history of siding with malign
actors, including Hamas, a U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist
Organization and a proxy of the Iranian regime, and continues
to pursue closer ties with the People's Republic of China
(``PRC'') and the Russian Federation.
(3) The South African Government's support of Hamas dates
back to 1994, when the ANC first came into power, taking a
hardline stance of consistently accusing Israel of practicing
apartheid.
(4) Following Hamas' unprovoked and unprecedented
horrendous attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, where Hamas
terrorists killed and kidnapped hundreds of Israelis, members
of the South African Government and leaders of the ANC have
delivered a variety of antisemitic and anti-Israel-related
statements and actions, including--
(A) on October 7, 2023, South Africa's Foreign
Ministry released a statement expressing concern of
``escalating violence'', urging Israel's restraint in
response, and implicitly blaming Israel for provoking
the attack through ``continued illegal occupation of
Palestine land, continued settlement expansion,
desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque and Christian holy
sites, and ongoing oppression of the Palestinian
people'';
(B) on October 8, 2023, the ANC's national
spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, said of the
devastating Hamas attack, ``the decision by
Palestinians to respond to the brutality of the settler
Israeli apartheid regime is unsurprising'';
(C) on October 14, 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa
of South Africa, accused Israel of ``genocide'' in
statements during a pro-Palestinian rally;
(D) on October 17, 2023, South African Foreign
Minister Naledi Pandor accepted a call with Hamas
Leader Ismail Haniyeh;
(E) on October 22, 2023, South African Foreign
Minister Naledi Pandor visited Tehran and met with
President Raisi of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which
is actively funding Hamas;
(F) on November 7, 2023, in a parliamentary address
Foreign Minister Pandor called for the International
Criminal Court to charge Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu with war crimes;
(G) on November 17, 2023, South Africa, along with
4 other countries, submitted a joint request to the
International Criminal Court for an investigation into
war crimes being committed in the Palestinian
territories; and
(H) on December 29, 2023, South Africa filed a
politically motivated suit in the International Court
of Justice wrongfully accusing Israel of committing
genocide.
(5) The South African Government has pursued increasingly
close relations with the Russian Federation, which has been
accused of perpetrating war crimes in Ukraine and
indiscriminately undermines human rights. South Africa's robust
relationship with Russia spans the military and political
space, including--
(A) allowing a United States-sanctioned Russian
cargo ship, the Lady R, to dock and transfer arms at a
South African naval base in December 2022;
(B) hosting offshore naval exercises, entitled
``Operation Mosi II'', carried out jointly with the PRC
and Russia, between February 17 and 27, 2023,
corresponding with the 1-year anniversary of Russia's
unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine;
(C) authorizing a United States-sanctioned Russian
military cargo airplane to land at a South African Air
Force Base;
(D) reneging on its initial call for the Russian
Federation to immediately withdraw its forces from
Ukraine and actively seeking improved relations with
Moscow since February 2022; and
(E) dispatching multiple high-level official
delegations to Russia to further political,
intelligence, and military cooperation.
(6) South African Government interactions with the PRC
Government and ANC interactions with the Chinese Communist
Party (``CCP''), who are committing gross violations of human
rights in the Xinjiang province and implement economically
coercive tactics around the globe, undermine South Africa's
democratic constitutional system of governance, as exemplified
in--
(A) ongoing ANC and CCP inter-party cooperation,
especially with the fundamental incompatibility between
the civil and democratic rights guaranteed in South
Africa's Constitution and the CCP's routine suppression
of free expression and individual rights;
(B) the recruitment of former United States and
NATO fighter pilots to train Chinese People's
Liberation Army pilots at the Test Flying Academy of
South Africa which the Department of Commerce added to
the Entity List on June 12, 2023;
(C) South Africa's hosting of 6 PRC Government-
backed and CCP-linked Confucius Institutes, a type of
entity that a CCP official characterized as an
``important part of the CCP's external propaganda
structure'', the most of any country in Africa;
(D) South Africa's participation in a political
training school opened in Tanzania funded by the
Chinese Communist Party where it trains political
members of the ruling liberation movements in six
Southern African countries. The school instills CCP
ideology into the next-generation of African leaders
and attempts to export the CCP's system of party-run
authoritarian governance to the African continent;
(E) cooperation with the PRC under the PRC's global
Belt and Road Initiative which, while trade and
infrastructure-focused, is designed to expand PRC
global economic, political, and security sector-related
influence; and
(F) the widespread presence in South Africa's media
and technology sectors of PRC state linked firms that
the United States has restricted due to threats to
national security, including Huawei Technologies, ZTE
and Hikvision, which place South African sovereignty at
risk and facilitate the CCP's export of its model of
digitally aided authoritarian governance underpinned by
cyber controls, social monitoring, propaganda, and
surveillance.
(7) The ANC-led South African Government has a history of
substantially mismanaging a range of state resources and has
often proven incapable of effectively delivering public
services, threatening the South African people and the South
African economy, as illustrated by--
(A) President Cyril Ramaphosa's February 9, 2023,
declaration of a national state of disaster over the
worsening, multi-year power crisis caused by the ANC's
chronic mismanagement of the state-owned power company
Eskom, resulting from endemic, high-level corruption;
(B) the persistence of South African state-owned
railway company Transnet's insufficient capacity, which
has disrupted rail operations and hindered mining
companies' export of iron ore, coal, and other
commodities, in part due to malfeasance and corruption
by former Transnet officials;
(C) an on-going outbreak of cholera, the worst in
15 years, which is due in part to the South African
Government's disease prevention failures, as President
Ramaphosa admitted on June 9, 2023, including a failure
to provide clean water to households; and
(D) rampant state capture, that emerged and grew
during the administration of former President Jacob
Zuma and has damaged South Africa's international
standing and profoundly undermined the rule of law,
continues to negatively impact the economic development
prospects and living standards of the South African
people while deeply damaging public trust in state
governance.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) it is in the national security interest of the United
States to deter strategic political and security cooperation
and information sharing with the PRC and the Russian
Federation, particularly any form of cooperation that may aid
or abet Russia's illegal war of aggression in Ukraine or its
international standing or influence; and
(2) the ANC's foreign policy actions have long ceased to
reflect its stated stance of nonalignment, and now directly
favor the PRC, the Russian Federation, and Hamas, a known proxy
of Iran, and thereby undermine United States national security
and foreign policy interests.
SEC. 4. PRESIDENTIAL CERTIFICATION OF DETERMINATION WITH RESPECT TO
SOUTH AFRICA.
(a) In General.--Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment
of this Act, the President, in consultation with the Secretary of State
and the Secretary of Defense, shall certify to the appropriate
congressional committees and release publicly an unclassified
determination explicitly stating whether South Africa has engaged in
activities that undermine United States national security or foreign
policy interests.
(b) Accompanying Report.--The certification required by subsection
(a) shall be accompanied by an unclassified report submitted to the
appropriate congressional committees, with a classified annex if
necessary, providing the justification for the determination.
SEC. 5. FULL REVIEW OF THE BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP.
(a) Bilateral Relationship Review.--The President, in consultation
with the Secretary of State, the Administrator of the United States
Agency for International Development, the Secretary of Defense, the
United States Ambassador to South Africa, and the heads of other
departments and agencies that play a substantial role in United States
relations with South Africa, shall conduct a comprehensive review of
the bilateral relationship between the United States and South Africa.
(b) Report on Findings.--Not later than 120 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a report that includes the findings of the
review required by subsection (a).
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.
(a) ANC.--The term ``ANC'' means the African National Congress.
(b) PRC.--The term ``PRC'' means the People's Republic of China.
(c) CCP.--The term ``CCP'' means the Chinese Communist Party.
(d) Appropriate Congressional Committees.--The term ``appropriate
congressional committees'' means--
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives; and
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.
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