Dancing to a Different Tune

South Africa's moral hypocrisy on Tibet

Published by City Press/News 24 - 30th September 2025

https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/julian-ozanne-dancing-to-a-different-tune-south-africas-moral-hypocrisy-on-tibet-20250930-0338

At a recent event when black political commentators were briefing visiting Buddhist monks about the history and politics of South Africa both sides suddenly found themselves in an emotional moment recognising each other’s personal and collective political suffering.

As one eminent South African journalist described the 1976 Soweto Uprising against the Apartheid government’s plan to force Afrikaans as the teaching medium into all schools - the Buddhist monks became immediately animated and spoke about how similar it was to the Chinese government forcing Mandarin as the teaching medium in schools in Tibet at the expense of the Tibetan language.

The attempt by one ethnic group to obliterate the language of another instantly recognised by people from vastly different parts of the world as being a common hallmark and experience of oppressive regimes seeking to control, dominate and obliterate the cultures of others.

Not for the first time the brutal sufferings experienced under Apartheid created deep resonance with visitors from foreign parts – an emphatic response similar to how a majority of South Africans feel about events in Israel-Palestine with their strong identity with the plight of the Palestinians at what they see as a similarly racist and genocidal government.

And yet, despite the deep political empathy and identification in the public with one ethnic identify being terrorised and dominated by another – and the preaching by the ANC’s founding fathers about pursuing an ethical and humanitarian foreign policy supporting the oppressed anywhere – South Africa’s actual foreign policy, sadly, remains deeply hypocritical and up for grabs by the highest bidder. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of Tibet.

The ANC government continues to present itself as a global moral compass—championing justice, human rights, and solidarity with oppressed peoples. And its herculean David versus Goliath confrontation of the state of Israel – including recalling its ambassador and pursing a case of genocide at the International Court of Justice – has won Pretoria global respect and admiration even from those who do not wholly agree with its position.

However, when it comes to Tibet—a region which has suffered severe repression and human rights abuse since 1959 when China brutally crushed a Tibetan uprising killing tens of thousands and forcing the Dalai Lama and 180,000 Tibetans into exile —South Africa’s formal stance is glaringly silent. Worse, it often appears tailored to deliberately placate Beijing. This contradiction is not just hypocrisy—it’s a betrayal of everything the country stands for as a model of multi-racial democracy and human rights.

Whilst the ANC has been a paragon of bold and fearlessness standing up to Israel – regarding Tibet its current and historical position has been a dark stain on its claim to morality in foreign policy.

The Dalai Lama – a global figure of wisdom and compassion who has so often been compared to Nelson Mandela and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu and who has elegantly led the Tibetan government in exile for 66 years – has been denied a visa to visit South Africa not once but three times – in 2009, 2011 and 2014 – even under intense pressure from Tutu, once the moral conscience of South Africa.

China—South Africa’s largest trading partner—praised the visa denials as “correct,” commending South Africa’s adherence to sovereignty and “One China” policy.

As the years go by the struggle for the restoration of Tibetan independence, freedom and self-determination gets increasingly suffocated. China continues a vice like oppressive control over Tibet. Much like Israel has done in the West Bank it has carved up occupied Tibet in multiple regions and encouraged ethnic Han Chinese to migrate into Tibet to dominate the business and government sectors. This deliberate demographic manipulation – combined with its policy of taking Tibetan kids from 6 years old into Chinese state-run boarding schools where Mandarin dominates – all fuels a massive drive to force assimilation and disintegrate Tibetan cultural identity.

Naturally, many Tibetans feel like second class citizens in their own country denied access to educational opportunities, jobs and business contracts and subject to arbitrary arrest and detentions for any acts of resistance, criticism of China or assertion of cultural identity.

Even the Dalai Lama, recognising the increasingly challenging political reality and the changing facts on the ground after 66 years of Chinese occupation, only pursues a policy of autonomy not independence for Tibet – the so called “middle path”.

Now, with the Dalai Lama having just turned ninety, and challenges over his replacement - there are fears for how Tibetans exiles can keep alive the flame of a free Tibet. When the Dalai Lama dies there will be a re-incarnation announced but there are fears for what China will do. In 1995 when the Dalai Lama recognised a new Panchen Lama (the second highest spiritual authority in Tibetan Buddhism) the six-year-old boy and his family was immediately taken into detention by China. He has not been seen since. And there are similar fears if a reincarnated Dalai Lama is announced inside Chinese occupied Tibet.

Despite the long history of Chinese oppression and bullying, successive South African governments—including that of former President Jacob Zuma and current President Cyril Ramaphosa—stick to a narrative of “national interest” and independence and sometimes justify this based on its supposed obligations to BRICs and the African Union. Critics, however, argue the policy clearly caves to economic coercion by Beijing.

One stark irony: the Office of Tibet in Pretoria, officially recognized and established in 1997, functions to promote Tibetan culture, history, and human rights in South Africa—but its presence has not stopped the government from repeatedly suppressing the Dalai Lama’s visits and turning a blind eye of the oppressive occupation of Tibet.

South Africa’s claim to moral leadership in foreign policy is now clearly a busted flush. Dancing to the tune of dictators and war mongers like China, Russia and Iran – pursuing deeply egregious realpolitik foreign policies at behest of the bullies – like the One China Policy – stand in stark contrast to the worthy and lofty aspirations claimed by the ANC to always stand with the weak and the oppressed.

Only in Israel-Palestine can South Africa claim to be living up to its lofty aspirations. However, now that this policy crosses another bully in the international playground – Donald Trump – it may be that South Africa may have to once and for all give up its ambitions to morality abroad.

There are potentially severe and punitive consequences for small nations dependent on foreign aid and investment seeking to tread an independent foreign policy. And plenty of South African commentators believe this is a luxury South Africa’s embattled economy can ill afford.

The dream for people of conscience is that South Africa could close the gap between its professed principles and its practice – treat Tibet with the same moral, clarity and outrage as Palestine (albeit acknowledging that the two cases whilst morally similar have more complex legal and political differences); support United Nations human rights criticisms of Chinese policy in Tibet and apologise to the Dalai Lama; condemn Putin’s genocide in Ukraine equally to condemning Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza and assert sovereignty through conviction, not capitulation - standing behind the principle that foreign policy shouldn’t be a pay check for economic bribery. If it is indeed true that human rights are universal, then they should not be contingent on aid, trade or diplomatic pressure.

What message does it send to the world when a nation that fought apartheid turns a blind eye to the plight of racially discriminated Tibetans and bombed out Ukrainians?

South Africa’s foreign policy stands at a crossroads. And History is watching.

If the country’s battered foreign policy is to have any modicum of integrity in the future it must have some consistency and reinstate the key principles of standing with the oppressed and those seeking freedom and self-determination – Gaza, Lhasa, Kyiv. If the country decides it cannot economically afford to take such a principled and an independent foreign policy stance - and must accept he who pays the piper calls the tune – then better to own that difficult realpolitik and stop grandstanding in a hypocritical global swamp. It would be a shame for South Africa to have to bend its knee to Putin, Xi, Trump and others – but less shameful than doing so whilst pretending it is not.

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