{"id":687761,"date":"2023-05-12T17:00:11","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=687761"},"modified":"2023-05-12T17:00:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T15:00:11","slug":"south-africa-is-free-to-choose-its-friends-but-so-is-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/687761\/south-africa-is-free-to-choose-its-friends-but-so-is-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa is free to choose its friends &#8211; but so is the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s government summoned US Ambassador Reuben Brigety after he publicly accused Pretoria of supplying weapons to Russia, while its foreign minister intends to raise the matter with her American counterpart.<\/p>\n<p>A diplomatic demarche will be issued to Brigety, and International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor will discuss the allegations with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday afternoon, Pandor\u2019s spokesman, Clayson Monyela, said on Twitter.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SouthAfrica?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SouthAfrica<\/a>\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6 values the relations we have with the United States of America. They&#8217;re cordial, strong, and mutually beneficial.<br \/>\n1. DIRCO will today demarche the USA Ambassador to South Africa following his remarks yesterday. We&#8217;ll issue a detailed statement after the meeting.\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Clayson Monyela (@ClaysonMonyela) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClaysonMonyela\/status\/1656944484083548161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Brigety told journalists that armaments were collected by a Russian cargo ship, the Lady R, from the Simon\u2019s Town naval base in Cape Town in December. South Africa\u2019s presidency said the comments were \u201cdisappointing\u201d and no evidence had been produced to back up the claim, but agreed to institute an independent investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The row caused the rand to slump to its weakest level on record against the dollar and yields on government bond to soar on Friday, amid investor concern that any escalation in the diplomatic row may put trade worth billions of dollars at risk.<\/p>\n<p>Relations between South Africa and the US have soured over Pretoria\u2019s insistence that it\u2019s taken a non-aligned stance toward Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, and any reprimand to the ambassador would up the ante.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe latest remarks from Brigety indicates that diplomatic efforts to deescalate tensions around South Africa\u2019s ties with Russia have failed,\u201d risk advisers Eurasia Group said in a note to clients.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYet despite violating US restrictions on arming Russia and dealing with a sanctioned Russia vessel, sanctions against South Africa are unlikely in the short term, though additional violations could change this outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>South African Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that Brigety\u2019s actions didn\u2019t amount to a diplomatic altercation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe undiplomatic conduct of the US ambassador should not create the impression that there is a fallout,\u201d she said. \u201cHe chooses to play in a manner that is unbecoming, to the detriment of the US.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018No Record\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Under South African law, all weapons exports must be reported to the National Conventional Arms Control Committee. The sale of arms to, \u201ccountries involved in the systematic violation or suppression of humanitarian rights and fundamental freedoms\u201d is prohibited, and should be avoided with countries involved in armed conflict.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe National Conventional Arms Control Committee has no record of an approved arms sale by the state to Russia related to the period\/incident in question,\u201d Monyela said. \u201cWe therefore welcome the inquiry established by His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish the facts and role players. If any crimes were committed, the law will take its course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judicial inquiry ordered by Ramaphosa will also consider whether South Africa\u2019s defense department was \u201cmisled by officials\u201d about the contents of the Russian vessel, Ntshavheni said.<\/p>\n<p>European diplomats contacted by Bloomberg said that while they weren\u2019t given warning of Brigety\u2019s comments, they came as no surprise as the shipment has been the subject of unanswered queries made by diplomats to the South African government for months.<\/p>\n<p>The US ambassador\u2019s comments were almost certainly sanctioned by Washington DC, they said, and while they don\u2019t expect South Africa to face immediate economic consequences \u2014 at least from the European Union \u2014 the furor serves as a shot across the bows to remind South Africa that its decisions have consequences, they said.<\/p>\n<p>The diplomats noted that South Africa\u2019s ruling party has frequently provoked the US in recent months, and that while Pretoria has the right to choose its allies, so does America. They asked not to be identified as their countries haven\u2019t commented publicly on the dispute.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/687529\/perfect-storm-hits-south-africa-tanking-the-rand-to-its-worst-levels-ever\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Perfect storm hits South Africa \u2013 tanking the rand to its worst levels ever<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States&#8217; bold allegations against South Africa are a warning to Pretoria that actions have consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":687763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-687761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":687765,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687761\/revisions\/687765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}