* ANC sending mixed signals to foreign investors
* Europe dominates FDI to South Africa
* ANC official says Africa growing weary of ‘sulking’ West
By Jon Herskovitz
JOHANNESBURG, June 1 (Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling
African National Congress (ANC) is walking a precarious path if
it pursues policies shunning the West in favour of fellow BRICS
members India and China to fund its development, Europe’s envoy
to Pretoria said on Friday.
The ANC, which has ruled since apartheid ended in 1994, has
sent mixed messages to Western powers about how welcome their
capital is in Africa’s largest economy, with a top official last
week saying they were dropping in importance.
“Attack us – that is fine. It does not matter. But don’t say
that in this economic period we don’t need each other because
that undermines the relationship,” Roeland van de Geer, head of
the European Union delegation to South Africa, told Reuters.
“If you get these remarks without nuance, it spoils a lot. I
cannot correct that. The damage is done,” he said.
ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe – also chairman of the
Communist Party – told Reuters last week the continent’s largest
economies were shunning “sulking” Western investors and adopting
a “Look East” policy to fuel their growth.
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