The signing of the investment incentive agreement between South Africa and the US in 1993 ensured that the two countries would develop cordial relations. Since the signing of the agreement the USA and South Africa have maintained good relations despite developments with a potential to throw the two countries on a collusion course.
South Africa's ambivalent position in relation to Robert Mugabe's obstinacy has not alienated the country from the USA. The most recent test to this relationship was the controversial awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident and China's condemnation of the process. It would have been expected that South Africa would support the Chinese Government on this, considering that it happened shortly after (then) President Zuma returned from a state visit to China. Yet, South Africa's relations with the USA remain on terra firma.
Critics of South Africa's friendship with the USA, notably M. J. Molyneaux, argue that the "good relations" between the two countries merely guarant the USA "unfettered but covert control over the vast reserves of the world's strategic minerals in Africa - a position absolutely essential to USA global dominance".
