Less than a week after being accused by the United States of supplying arms to Russia, South Africa is holding firm in its so-called “non-aligned” position. On Tuesday, May 16, the commander of the land forces of the South African army, General Lawrence Mbatha, even traveled to Moscow for talks with Russian military institutions. The information was confirmed by the South African National Defense Force (SANDF). This meeting was “planned well in advance” as part of a “long-standing agreement”, SANDF said in a statement, adding that it was a “goodwill visit” to the invitation from the Russian army.
Quoted by the TASS and Interfax agencies, the Russian Ministry of Defense had indicated earlier that General Lawrence Mbatha and his delegation discussed with their Russian colleagues “issues of military cooperation” aimed at “increasing the combat readiness of the armed forces of the two countries”. “At the meeting of military leaders, agreements were reached on strengthening cooperation between ground forces in various fields,” the source added. “The delegation visited military educational establishments of the Russian ground forces and military-industrial complex enterprises,” the Russian agencies said. The SANDF has confirmed the visit to military educational establishments.
This visit comes in the midst of tensions between South Africa and the United States, which accuses Pretoria of having delivered arms to Russia, a country which has been leading a military offensive against Ukraine for more than a year. After these accusations, which were made by the American ambassador in Pretoria, the South African government promised to carry out an investigation into these alleged deliveries.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa assured him on Monday that his country would not be drawn into “a competition between world powers” over Ukraine and that he had been subject to “extraordinary pressure” to choose a side. . “We do not accept that our non-aligned position favors Russia over other countries. We also do not accept that this jeopardizes our relations with other countries,” he said in the weekly presidential bulletin. The South African head of state spoke on the phone last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two leaders having shown their desire to “increase” their cooperation, according to the Kremlin.
If the South African state supplied arms to Russia, as Washington accuses, how can it not know about it? The opening of an investigation, announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, aroused perplexed, even mocking comments on Friday in the country.
And beyond that, there is real concern about the economic repercussions of the diplomatic dispute, the United States being an essential trading partner for South Africa. Trade in goods between the two countries amounted to $13.2 billion in 2019.
Close to the Kremlin since the days of the struggle against apartheid, Pretoria refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, saying it wanted to remain neutral. However, the country maintains a much more substantial commercial relationship with the United States and Europe than with Russia. He would therefore have much to lose from a falling out with Washington, warn economists.
The rand, already weakened against the dollar in recent days, fell sharply, reaching its lowest level in three years. “This case has certainly aggravated negative feelings about South Africa,” Hugo Pienaar, chief economist at the Bureau for Economic Research, told AFP.
Some worry that South Africa could find itself excluded from AGOA, a mechanism that exempts certain African countries from export taxes to the United States and of which Pretoria is the main beneficiary. For example, an analysis by the University of South Africa found that in 2017, the United States imported approximately $59 million – or 10% – of its wine from South Africa, representing a significant share given the global competition.
For other experts, these “attacks” can be explained by “Washington’s deep concern […] about the likely expansion of the BRICS” (a group of countries including Russia, China and Africa du Sud) who are increasingly seeking to do without the dollar, analyzes researcher Nontobeko Hlela in the Mail
