ANC sections urge South Africa to strengthen relations with Morocco, support UN Security Council Resolutions on the Sahara
Several sections of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, have called for strengthening bilateral relations with Morocco, for recognizing the Kingdom’s invaluable support for the fight against apartheid. They also urged South Africa to refrain from supporting parties advocating military action, alluding to the Algeria-backed polisario and its military plans, and to support the UN Security Council Resolutions on the Sahara.
This came in a Memorandum submitted Wednesday to the party’s Secretariat in Johannesburg.
“We call on the ANC to recognize Morocco’s pioneering support for the fight against apartheid, as acknowledged by President Nelson Mandela in his speeches, books, journals, and through several visits to Morocco,” emphasize the signatories of this manifesto, a copy of which was obtained by the Moroccan news agency MAP.
They remind that, at the time, before Algeria’s independence and the establishment of training programs in that country, freedom fighters from the Algerian Liberation Army and the ANC, including Nelson Mandela himself, received training in Morocco.
This unequivocal support from the Kingdom also included financial and military assistance to the African National Congress and the creation of its military branch “uMKhonto WeSizwe,” the signatories say. Morocco’s backing was also evident in political support, through the hosting of the ANC office and political promotion during the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), of which Morocco is a founding member, following the Casablanca Conference, which, among other things, provided strong and clear support for the fight against colonialism and apartheid, note the signatories of the Memorandum.
The ANC and South Africa, they argue, should seek ways to improve their strategic engagement with Morocco in order to coordinate policies and programs for the benefit of the African peoples and achieve the goals of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the progressive agenda of the two like-minded countries.
Today, Morocco is an important economic player on the continent and hosts significant South African investments and businesses, the signatories point out, stating further that greater synergies between the two countries could help realize the national economic interests of their peoples and unlock the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Regarding the Sahara issue, the ANC sections assert that the majority of African countries recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over its Southern provinces. They therefore urge South Africa to continuously call for a peaceful resolution to the dispute over the Moroccan Sahara and to refrain from supporting parties advocating military action. “The ANC and South Africa should support the conclusions of the Security Council resolutions, particularly resolution 2756 adopted on October 30, 2024, which calls on Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the Polisario to negotiate in good faith and in a spirit of compromise, and to sit at the negotiating table to reach a just, fair, and mutually acceptable political solution,” the signatories argue.
The Memorandum adds that the ANC and South Africa should take stock and draw lessons from the broad international support for Morocco’s autonomy initiative for the Sahara, aimed at resolving this artificial dispute, noting that “more than 110 UN member countries support this initiative.”
“South Africa must call on Algeria, Mauritania, and the Polisario, as requested by the UN Security Council, to consider the Moroccan autonomy proposal, submitted in 2007, to end the deadlock,” the memorandum states.
In parallel with the submission of this Memorandum to the ANC Secretariat, demonstrators gathered Wednesday outside the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg to express their dissatisfaction with the ANC’s diplomatic approach towards Morocco.
