Morocco-South Africa: on the Double Speak of a Pro-Separatism Journalist

The rapprochement between Morocco and South Africa seems to annoy some pro-separatism journalists who continue to spit their venom in the media. The diatribe written on Eyewitness News by Jean Jacques Cornish against Morocco is illustrative of the demise of the separatist discourse in Africa in general and in South Africa in particular.

In a letter to new ANC head, Cyril Ramaphosa, Cornish attempted hard to hide the sun with one finger denying the triumphal significance of Morocco’s return to the African Union and its growing clout in the continent.

After he described Morocco as a country of tourism, oranges and drugs, he continued his hate speech, claiming, “Morocco has nothing to offer South Africa.” Such a statement is not only emanating of envy but also of ignorance about Morocco and the projects it has ushered with African heavy weights including Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Someone should have told Cornish to look in the mirror before attacking Morocco. The same journalist, when he was chairman of the French Alliance of Pretoria, has said last March at the screening of Leila Marrakchi’s film, Rock the Casbah, that “in the African continent, which swings between hope and despair, Morocco is rising thanks to the political and economic progress it has achieved as a land of hope and optimism”.

He added “It is high time that this great country, took the place it deserves in the African Union to continue to give its precious contribution to build Africa of the future.”

Such a double speak not only undermines the credibility of Cornish’s letter but makes him look inconsistent and self-contradictory and hence unqualified to give an advice to the ANC leader on his future African policy to say the least.