By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) has announced plans to reprimand US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, for not following proper diplomatic channels to express his country’s concerns over arms allegedly being sent to Russia.
Dirco spokesperson Clayson Monyela said “DIRCO will today démarche the USA Ambassador to South Africa following his remarks yesterday. We’ll issue a detailed statement after the meeting.”
A démarche is a diplomatic term to summons and protest a representative of a foreign country.
He added that Minister Naledi Pandor would also speak to her USA counterpart, Secretary Antony Blinken, this afternoon on SA’s decision to take action against Brigety.
Monyela added that “the National Conventional Arms Control Committee has no record of an approved arms sale by the state to Russia related to the period/incident in question.
“We, therefore, welcome the inquiry established by HE President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish the facts and role players. If any crimes were committed, the law will take its course.”
The weapons were loaded onto the Russian cargo vessel, the Lady R, before it made its way back from Cape Town to Russia, Brigety said in remarks to reporters on Thursday, the shipment “does not suggest the actions of a non-aligned country,” he said.
The US takes the arming of Russia extremely seriously and the issue remains unresolved, according to the ambassador, who spoke after returning from the US with a South African delegation that had sought to ensure the country retains its preferential trade access to American markets. He didn’t specify what weapons the US believed had been collected and the US Embassy declined to comment further on the claims.
The rand, which had already been under pressure because of ongoing energy shortages, extended declines against the dollar following Brigety’s remarks, weakening as much as 2.5%. It later retraced its losses and was 1.6% lower at 19.1641 at 6:35 p.m. in Johannesburg.
Ramaphosa’s office said it was disappointed about the ambassador’s remarks, which it said undermined the spirit of cooperation and partnership that characterized recent engagements between officials from the two governments. The independent inquiry into the allegations will led by a retired judge, it said.
Relations between South Africa and the US have soured over Pretoria’s insistence that it was taking a non-aligned stance toward Russia’s war in Ukraine. The former Soviet Union supported ruling African National Congress during the decades-long struggle against apartheid and the party has maintained ties to Russia’s current leaders since the end of White-minority rule in 1994.
In December 2022, Defense Minister Thandi Modise said she was still awaiting paperwork on the contents of the Lady R, but that the goods that were loaded on it pertained to an order placed before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
The reason America is “interested in that vessel coming to our shores is actually because America threatens the rest of Africa, not just South Africa, of having anything that is even smelling of Russia, “Modise said.
South Africa’s biggest trading partners are the EU and the US. South Africa is the largest US and EU trading partner in Africa, with the US totalling R289 billion (about US$16 billion in 2021) and the EU totalling a trade of R699 billion (about US$ 38 billion in 2021.
South Africa also benefits from the preferential access to US markets for some of its exports in terms of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)
But the country is politically tied to the emergent multipolar world led by China, and broadly BRICS.
Even France and the UK have begun to understand the need to balance their own interests with China against their interests with their traditional ally, the US.