President Cyril Ramaphosa and Russian President Vladimir Putin during bilateral engagements in Russia. Picture: X/@PresidencyZA
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has distanced itself from comments made by President Cyril Ramaphosa where he said that Russia is a valuable ally and friend to South Africa’s government.
Ramaphosa is currently in Kazan, Russia, for the 16th Brics summit. On Tuesday he had bilateral engagements with Putin.
“We continue to see Russia as a valued ally, as a valued friend, who supported us right from the beginning: from the days of our struggle against apartheid, right through to now,” Ramaphosa told Putin during talks.
He also briefed the Russian president on the government of national unity (GNU).
“We have formed a government of national unity following our elections in May of this year. We will have time to talk more about that and inform you how that whole process of governing South Africa with a number of other partners is evolving as we have sought to unite the country, to stabilise the country politically,” Ramaphosa said.
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The president’s comments have rubbed the DA, a partner in the GNU, the wrong way. Its leader, John Steenhuisen, said the party rejected this characterisation in “no uncertain terms”.
Steenhuisen said the DA does not consider Russia, or Putin, to be an ally of South Africa.
“We cannot and will not agree that South Africa should consider an authoritarian regime that is currently violating international law by waging an imperialist war of aggression against a sovereign state as an ally,” he said in a statement on Wednesday in relation to the Ukraine-Russia war.
Steenhuisen added that as trade and foreign relations are essential to the GNU’s main goal of job creation and growth, the government cannot afford to make remarks that could endanger this.
“As leader of the Democratic Alliance in the GNU, I reiterate the importance of positions expressed on behalf of the GNU being the subject to full and proper debate within the government mechanisms before being announced as positions of the GNU to ensure maximum consensus and agreement amongst the parties to the GNU,” the DA leader said.
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Meanwhile, during his address during the Brics open plenary session on Wednesday, Ramaphosa said that South Africa sees from many conflicts raging across the world that the UN Security Council has not fulfilled its mandate to maintain international peace and security.
“It does not represent the interests of the global community and therefore does not have the means to give effect to the global desire for peace,” the president said.
He spoke about the war between Israel and Palestine, and even criticised other countries’ support for Israel.
“The countries of the world have a responsibility not to fund or facilitate Israel’s genocidal actions. As the UN General Assembly has now resolved, the countries of the world have a responsibility to promote the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,” the president said.
He, however, made no mention of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Though South Africa filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to declare Israel’s actions in Palestine as genocide, it has maintained it’s “non-aligned” stance on Russia’s war with Ukraine.
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