As a result of its decision to withhold cargo records pertaining to a visit by a Russian ship that the US claims gathered a shipment of weapons for Moscow, the South African government came under further criticism Wednesday.
Separately, a high-ranking member of South Africa’s governing party increased the focus on the nation’s connections with Russia by stating that the party would “welcome” a visit from President Vladimir Putin, who the International Criminal Court has prosecuted for war crimes.
The remarks by Fikile Mbalula, the secretary general of the African National Congress, about Putin were made in an interview with the BBC and in relation to the Russian president attending a BRICS economic bloc conference in South Africa in August. Brazil, South Africa, Russia, China, and India make up the group.
Mbalula said in the interview, portions of which were shared on the ANC’s social media accounts on Tuesday, “If it were up to the ANC, we would want President Putin to be here, even tomorrow, to come to our country.” “We will warmly welcome him to visit us as an integral part of BRICS.”
South Africa must detain Putin if he enters the nation since it has signed the International Criminal Court pact. If Putin attends the conference, the South African government has implied—though not explicitly—that it will not execute the arrest order.
Do you believe a head of state may be detained anywhere at any time? The ANC’s senior administrative officer, Mbalula, a former Cabinet minister, said in the BBC interview.
He said that the West was acting hypocritically in relation to the arrest warrant for Putin since, despite atrocities perpetrated in Iraq and Afghanistan by Britain and other Western countries, no heads of state were detained. He made this claim in an interview with the BBC.
Last month, Mbalula alluded to the US as one of the nations “messing up the world.”
anti-Western rhetoric
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, anti-American and anti-Western sentiment has grown in the ANC and even in certain quarters of South Africa’s government, despite South Africa’s insistence that it has taken a neutral posture in the conflict.
Because South Africa is a powerful democracy in the developing world and has Africa’s most developed economy, the tendency worries the U.S. and other Western allies of South Africa.
Since the ANC was a liberation organization striving to overthrow the racist apartheid state that oppressed the country’s Black population, South Africa and Russia have had a historical connection that is rooted in that support. The ANC’s historical ideological links to Russia have raised concerns in the West, who fear that with rising international tensions, South Africa may be moving closer to Moscow’s political circle. A continent with 1.3 billion inhabitants, Africa, is likewise developing commercial connections with China.
The worries were made clear earlier this month when the U.S. envoy to South Africa accused that country of sending weaponry to Russia through a cargo ship that berthed at a naval facility close to Cape Town in December. Reuben Brigety, the ambassador, stated, “I would bet my life” that weapons were carried onboard the Russian-flagged Lady R, which is subject to American sanctions due to alleged connections to a corporation that has shipped weapons for the Russian government.
The South African government has denied ever transacting in guns with Russia, but it hasn’t ruled out the idea that someone else may have done so covertly. An investigation has been mandated by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
A cargo manifest for the Lady R’s visit to the Simon’s Town naval station was demanded by South Africa’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, on Wednesday. If the government had nothing to hide, it was urged to come clean.
During a Tuesday discussion in Parliament, a DA politician also requested that the records be made public from Defense Minister Thandi Modise. When asked to confirm the government’s denial that any weapons were placed onboard the ship, Modise declined and used an obscenity.
The Russian ship was in port, according to Modise, to supply munitions to South Africa that had been bought in 2018 but had been delayed because to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Co-ANC parliamentarians backed Modise in his reluctance to provide the shipment manifest, claiming that the records were “classified.” They will be given to the investigation investigating the event, according to Modise.
