By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa continues to reap economic benefits from its association with the BRICS countries, with talks during bilateral events going beyond political engagement.
Ramaphosa was answering oral questions in the National Council of Provinces on Thursday.
“We, as a country, have benefitted a great deal [through] the association with other BRICS countries. China today is our largest trading partner and this has largely been cemented, upheld and encouraged by our membership of BRICS, “Ramaphosa said.
The group is now known as the BRICS Plus group following the addition of six new member countries – namely Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The President said the expansion of the BRICS group of countries, up from five members to 11, will give a “great boost, particularly to the Global South”.
He hinted at the possible further expansion of the group, which would give further credence to the group’s growing influence in global matters.
“We are, as it is now, going to consider membership applications from many other countries that want to be part of BRICS. So BRICS continues to grow. It continues to grow in importance, economically, politically, as well as [where] trade is concerned.
“BRICS is the great attraction that many countries now see for development and we want to keep BRICS as an important forum, as an important partnership that progresses countries that are associated with it or part of it, “he said.
Russian Vessel Lady R
Lady R came into the spotlight in May after US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety “bet on his life” on the “fact” that South Africa had supplied ammunition to Russia in December.
The ambassador claimed that the Russian vessel Lady R docked at the Simon’s Town naval base and received the weapons from the South African government.
The government denied the claims and established an independent panel led by retired Judge Phineas Mojapelo to investigate the allegations.
The panel found no evidence to suggest South Africa had loaded weapons onto Lady R for export to Russia, nor did it find criminal conduct by any persons involved in the docking or offloading of the ship.
It also found that all relevant permits for the importation of equipment delivered by the ship had been properly obtained.
However, the Democratic Alliance’s Rikus Badenhorst, asked Ramaphosa on Thursday if he had deliberately misled the nation concerning the “highly irregular” handling of ammunition as controlled items and whether he was misled by the “irrational and false” findings.
The independent panel that I appointed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the docking of the Lady R vessel in Simon’s Town in December 2022 was led by a respected, reputable retired judge and two prominent, respected legal minds. The extent of the work undertaken and the information that the panel sought, obtained and analysed gives me full confidence in the content of their report,” said Ramaphosa.
The Freedom Front Plus’ Franszouis Du Toit asked Ramaphosa how he expected South Africans and the world to believe that the report was truthful when “there was no transparency in this whole debacle”.
The president said Du Toit had no choice but to accept the contents of the shipment on the Lady R vessel would never be publicised as a matter of national security.
Construction Mafia’s
Ramaphosa said they have set up 20 task teams to go after illegal miners, the construction Mafia and those who are stripping the country of essential infrastructure.
He said the police have been able to arrest 70 people involved in the construction Mafia.
But DA MP Tim Brauteseth said his figure was contrary to the one given by Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Sihle Zikalala, who said 200 people have been arrested for being involved in the construction Mafia.
Ramaphosa said, it was critical that they crack the construction Mafia and syndicates involved in the destruction of the infrastructure.
He said he has spoken to Minister of Police Bheki Cele and National Commissioner Fannie Masemola about beefing up special task teams.
They want to allocate more resources to ensure the construction Mafia was not able to continue to disrupt businesses.
“I am glad to hear that you have taken note of the activity that is now getting under way in a much more vigorous way with regard to dealing with these criminals, who go to building sites and try to extort money. But as you correctly say, they have now morphed into something else, they are now gangs that go around intimidating businesspeople, taking over building sites.
“We are aware of this and that is why the task teams have been enhanced. That is why we are deploying enormous resources to enable them to do their work. It’s not only to the businesspeople, it’s also to the workers because as those thugs get to building sites they also attack workers and they subject workers to great pressure to do wrong things from time to time.”
“We are going to go after those gangs, we are going to go after those people who hijack building sites,” said Ramaphosa.
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