Against the Tide by Steven Friedman

The government is right to refuse to take sides in Russia's Ukraine war - but its problem is that it does not know how to do this. While much of the pressure on the government is an attempt to get it to support the Western powers without criticising their double standards, nothing it does suggests that it has thought out how to signal clearly that it is not aligned either to the West or to Russia and China - and to get the best out of this position  

This is the view of my weekly Against the Tide column sent to subscribers this morning. To read it and other columns on current politics, visit the Against the Tide website and subscribe. If you can't afford the subscription, contact info@againstthetide.co.za to discuss a reduced or free subscription

Steven Friedman is a public commentator and an academic, currently employed as a Research Professor at the University of Johannesburg. He has been writing on South African politics for the entire democratic period both as a scholar and public commentator. He has published books on South Africa’s transition to democracy, the role of the trade union movement, and current South African politics. He has also written columns and articles for several South African newspapers. His writing seeks to use academic research to shed light on current politics but to ensure that this is conveyed in a way easily understood by people who have no academic training.