‘History will judge you,’ Mr President

President Cyril Ramaphosa has to win this month’s – this year’s, possibly – Closing The Stable Door After The Horse Has Bolted Award” for his urging of “all sides” in the Russian-Ukraine war to “respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

There are thousands of Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers, many more thousands of soldiers and hundreds of rocket strikes which clearly show Vladimir Putin’s respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

In wanting to play “honest broker”, Ramaphosa has – so far at least – been less than honest in only phoning Putin and not Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

That means the ANC government has taken sides. And while, undoubtedly, the world is not getting a full and accurate picture from Western media on what is happening in Ukraine and the reasons for it, the overwhelming opinion of the rest of the world – bolstered by reality – is that Putin is in the wrong.

And it’s not as though most of the rest of the world agrees with us: Just 39 nations voted against a United Nations resolution censuring Russia, or abstained.

A total of 141 countries – most of the globe – voted against Moscow. History will judge you, Mr President.

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