PRESS RELEASE: 40 Years After PW Botha’s Rubicon Speech, Mashatile Makes The Same Mistake

PRESS RELEASE: 40 Years After PW Botha’s Rubicon Speech, Mashatile Makes the Same Mistake 

This month marks 40 years since PW Botha’s infamous Rubicon speech - a turning point where South Africa rejected reform and chose isolation. Four decades later, Deputy President Paul Mashatile is sounding eerily similar. Faced with growing international pressure to abandon race-based laws, the ANC has decided to entrench them further. 

The parallels are striking. In 1985, Botha defied global demands for change, and South Africa paid the price through sanctions, lost investment, and economic decline. In 2025, Mashatile risks repeating that same historic error. Already, the United States has made the relaxation of race-based policies a central demand in trade negotiations. Ignoring this reality threatens to cost South Africa one of its largest trade partners and thousands of jobs. 

RP Executive Committee member Robert King says: “It is laughable for Mashatile to claim race laws are needed for ‘inclusive growth’ when the economy has averaged just 0.8% growth over the past decade. These laws don’t build growth, they kill it. They scare off investors, block innovation like Starlink, and trap millions in poverty.” 

RP argues that only a shift to non-racialism, meritocracy, and pro-growth policies can deliver genuine empowerment for all. In June, the RP presented a petition signed by over 12,000 South Africans to Parliament in support of its Non-Racialism Bill. 

The lesson of 1985 is clear: doubling down on failed ideology only leads to decline and isolation. RP insists South Africa cannot afford to make the same mistake in 2025.

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