In a frank conversation with renowned political analyst, Prof Sipho Seepe, he offers some interesting food for thought for the ANC on the party’s foreign policy stance regarding Western Sahara.
“The ANC should not confuse sovereignty with self-determination. Nations have been able to create self-determining regions within one sovereign state,” he says, before adding: “Canada, for instance, is comprised of English and French-speaking regions. However, Canadians have been able to rise above regional identities to forge the spirit of patriotism in support of their nation.”
Prof Seepe’s advise comes amid a globalized world of inter-connected political discourse, characterized too by old parties such as the ANC facing enormous challenges to reposition and repurpose their historical missions.
Legitimate struggles for liberation have been waged – with some won and others lost. Ultimately, people grow war-fatigued. Humanity by nature desires peace and, at times – and in pursuit of cordial coexistence – peace can be better than being right.
For too long a time, the ANC has thrown its weight behind the struggle of the Western Sahara people for self-determination. This is a terrain various generations of the ANC leadership has championed with relentless determination.
Unsurprisingly, support for Western Sahara has historically pitted the ANC against the authorities in Morocco, at times leading to unsavoury public utterances on either side.
But time not being static, latest developments in international affairs appears to have caught the ANC unaware, posing a major foreign policy conundrum for Mandela’s party whose fortunes continue to be waning since assuming power in 1994.
After decades-old struggle by the Western Sahara people, led by the POLISARIO guerilla movement, a solution appears to be on the horizon. In October 2025, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2797, based on Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal for the people of Western Sahara.
The resolution seeks to expedite intentional dialogue between Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Frente POLISARIO, representing the people of Western Sahara. Algeria has always supported the POLISARIO against Morocco and Mauritania, who partitioned Western Sahara after the Spanish colonial rule ended in 1975. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the territory, and Morocco took sole control of the entire area.
Since 1991, the UN peacekeeping mission has been deployed to the area following a ceasefire, which lasted until 2020 when renewed clashes resurfaced when POLISARIO accused Morocco of undermining the ceasefire. The sporadic clashes continue to this day. According to UN records Resolution 2797, therefore, seeks to assist the parties to achieve “a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution based on compromise consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations”.
The Resolution 2797 is, however, at variance with the ANC’s historical mission – and objective – for the total emancipation of Western Sahara from Morocco. It is also supported by the African Union as a chance for genuine solution.
The resolution calls for negotiations based on Morocco’s stance that autonomy is a preferred end-game than total cessation by Western Sahara. Morocco’s argument is based on the belief that Western Sahara people are one with the rest of the people of Morocco.
According to the UN Resolution 2797, Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal is a potential path “to a mutually acceptable political solution for self-determination”. It was first presented by Morocco to the office of the UN Secretary-General on April 11, 2007. It also proposes “autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty” as a foundation for “a most feasible solution” to the conflict that began in 1973 and escalated in 1975 when Spain withdrew as a colonial power over Morocco. The resolution shifts focus from past referendum plans supported by the ANC while reaffirming core UN principles.
The impact of UN Resolution 2797 on the conflict between Western Sahara and Morocco remains unclear. However, the resolution extends the “UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara” (MINURSO) for another year.
The resolution also “encourages parties to engage in discussions using Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal (and not cessation) as a basis for seeking a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable resolution” to the conflict.
A member of the ANC Sub-Committee on International Relations who spoke on condition of anonymity explained: “We are faced with a really big challenge here. Our support for the people of Western Sahara has always been about their full independence from Morocco, but now the adopted UN Resolution 2797 seems to offer a half-baked cake in the form of autonomy only.”
The person added: “We cannot go against a UN resolution. As members of the UN, we are bound to support the resolution as is. It will now be up to the Western Sahara people to determine their eventual political settlement in the same or similar way to how the ANC led negotiations that resulted in the New South Africa.”
The person further said “the will of the people of Western Sahara will have to be respected, regardless of what outsiders think, or had wished for”.
Historical relations between Morocco and the ANC had been noble and comradely. In 1961, it was Morocco that offered Nelson Mandela military training in the period leading up to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s military wing.
Prof Seepe noted: “This is part of history that is not commonly known because the ANC itself has not told or taught this part of history often enough to be widely known.”
He concluded: “Conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara is a centuries-old problem rooted in colonialism. Colonialists, in their arrogance, arbitrarily partitioned native lands to serve the colonial interests. This was part of the divide-and-rule,” he says, and continues: “The UN Resolution 2797 should be seen not as a victory against Western Sahara. It should instead form a basis of an alternative way of reducing the balkanization of Africa. The challenge facing Morocco and Western Sahara should be about fostering unity while respecting regional self-determination. The resolution also forces Africans to revisit the colonially determined sovereign states. This could reduce or eradicate disunity among Africans,” says Prof Seepe.
