‘Lady R’ and her pallets still a riddle

We now know a little bit more about what happened in the hours of darkness on the quay in Simon’s Town Naval Base in December last year, when the Russian freighter Lady R paid a visit.

The edited report of the panel which probed the incident says certain “equipment” bought from Russia and intended for the SA National Defence Force was “offloaded at night, under cover of darkness”, as was “standard practice in relation to this kind of equipment (specifically in relation to its intended use)”.

Because the process was not completed by the time the sun rose, the remaining pallets were put back on the ship to await nightfall. All rather James Bond-ish…

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The fact that whatever was on those pallets could be determined in daylight shows they were not mere weapons and ammunition, because these would have been packed in crates.

Defence Minister Thandi Modise said the shipment was ammunition – so why the need to keep it hidden if that is all it was? That’s just one aspect of the puzzling case.

Another is, as African Defence Review director Darren Olivier noted, the fact that the panel found the order was placed through a company in the United Arab Emirates – the first time this has been mentioned.

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He asks why the contract was placed through the UAE when all other elements were Russian… The report says nobody was forthcoming with hard evidence that arms or equipment was loaded on the Lady R and the Democratic Alliance – one of the loudest making these claims – has still not provided substantiation either.

We are little better off than we were before the probe.

The incident can be characterised by Winston Churchill’s famous quote: “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…” Ironically, he said that about Russia in 1939.

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