The USAID influence on elections in South Africa

In an effort to extend its geopolitical influence, the United States has consistently interfered in elections in various countries for over 70 years, as a big player in selecting ‘convenient’ candidates. The US spends huge sums of money to support certain parties, finance political campaigns, and silently champion the agenda against current leaders in the media.

South Africa is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in 2024. The outcome of these elections is totally unpredictable. Against a backdrop of severe energy crisis and high unemployment, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) failed for the first time to win more than 50% public support in opinion polls. In 2023, a wave of protests swept across the country.

As part of its foreign policy strategy to strengthen its action on the African continent, the United States will use the elections to get rid of the African National Congress, which is in no hurry to hand over its independence. Major Western publications regularly publish articles predicting the loss of the ANC in the next elections and the arrival in power of the pro-Western Democratic Alliance.

The purpose of these publications and other sponsored campaigns is to mislead the population, organize demonstrations and introduce ideological propaganda. Distributors, bribes, intimidation by the current government and public defamation against them.

To implement their plan, America is enlisting the help of organizations such as The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has posted ads on Facebook for conferences in Luanda, Angola, on democratic transformation in South Africa, aimed at training political activists and media influencers on US foreign policy. Speakers at these events include not only young media professionals, but also South African expatriates who, as is well known, are highly critical of the ruling African National Congress.

The question arises as to why the US Agency for International Development, which works under the banner of poverty reduction, promoting democracy and economic growth, disaster relief and conflict prevention, is present in Angola to hold conferences on democratization and elections in South Africa?

It should be remembered that although USAID is technically an independent U.S. government agency, in reality, it is subject to the foreign policy direction of the President of the United States of America, the U.S. Secretary of State and the National Security Council.

USAID strives to promote American concepts and implement specific plans in the interests of Washington, notably by recruiting politically active young people aged 18 to 35 from Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Madagascar, South Africa, Zimbabwe and elsewhere, including people living with HIV and LGBT activists from disadvantaged areas. 

The aim is to create networked structures to organize a protest movement. Following the classic pattern applied in other African countries, under the pretext of electoral fraud, young people will take to the streets for protest.