This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin called his South African counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa. The purpose of the telephone call was crystal clear and straight to the point. The Kremlin sought to brief Pretoria – first hand – about President Putin’s views over his recent globally publicized face-to-face talks with the US President Donald Trump in Alaska.
In a statement subsequently released by President Ramaphosa’s office, it became vividly obvious that South Africa appreciated being accorded the respect by Russia to such an extent that time was set aside to confidentially appraise President Ramaphosa about the Alaska summit outcomes as well as the anticipated way-forward.
President Ramaphosa’s office explained in a statement: “President Putin expressed satisfaction with the manner in which his talks with President Trump proceeded and the emerging alignment on the peace process.”
The statement concluded by revealing how both Presidents Putin and Trump “pledged to maintain open lines of communication and to continue their cooperation on issues of their bilateral interests”.
The revelation of the Kremlin’s call to President Ramaphosa signified the amount of weight Russia places on the bilateral ties with South Africa. It is a development worthy to be embraced in the greater scheme of the rapid reconfiguration of the international world order that is currently unfolding before our eyes.
President Putin actually called President Ramaphosa twice in ten days. The only explanation one can deduce from the frequency of the calls is that Russia continues to see SA as an important ally despite some regrettable missteps in the relationship in recent times.
Russia is a hugely important player in international affairs. This factor alone was emphasized by the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he also alluded to Russia as a nuclear power of great significance, a player in world affairs, he said. Hence, instead of an antagonistic posture toward Russia, which some leading European powers prefer, the US clearly prefers a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict.
Washington deserves to be commended for its avoidance of a devastating military confrontation with Russia. The Trump administration has wisely elected to engage in a diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine conflict and thereby safe tens of thousands of lives who continue to perish needlessly.
Strategic ties between Russia and SA date back many decades at the height of apartheid when the Soviet Union offered to give its backing to Africa’s liberation movements, including the ANC and the SA Communist Party.
In fact, two of SA’s prominent freedom fighters – Moses Kotane and JB Marks, died in the 1970’s whilst in exile in Russia and were given hero’s burials on the outskirts of Moscow, the capital. Their graves were categorized by the Russians as special sites of historical significance. During President Jacob Zuma’s tenure, the remains of both Kotane and Marks were exhumed with the assistance of the Russians and repatriated back to SA where they were given state reburials in their villages of origin. Kotane was laid to rest in Phela village outside Swartruggens in the North West and Marks in Ventersdorp, also in the North West province. Back in Moscow, the Russian government maintained their former grave sites as special heritage areas and a permanent reminder of the special bond between the two nations that remains intact despite modern-day challenges.
I want to argue that it is in SA’s best geopolitical interest to cement cordial bilateral ties with Russia in this day and age. International Relations scholars concur on the crucial role that Russia plays in global affairs. Too often, SA has been under undue pressure by the West to keep a distance from Russia, and too often SA has unfortunately relented.
Worrying examples of this trend in recent memory are plentiful. What comes easily to mind is the August 2023 BRICS Summit that was held in Sandton when SA prevaricated before confirming that President Putin would not attend the summit in person. It further transpired that SA’s judicial authorities were likely to arrest the Russian president due the controversial warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in relation to the Ukraine war.
The ICC has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that it is a Western tool aimed at dealing mainly with African leaders and a few others elsewhere. If the activities of the ICC are at odds with SA’s national interest, the recognition of the ICC needs to be rescinded. Leading nations in world affairs are not signatories to the Rome Statute. They include the US, Russia and China, among others.
Another misstep that Pretoria took was to invite Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to SA amid pomp and ceremony in April. Many in BRICS and across the Global South were taken aback as they held the view that President Zelensky’s state visit to SA was as ill-timed as it was ill-advised. There can be no doubt that in the background, Russia still feels deeply hurt and disappointed about SA’s handling of the situation.
South Africa’s foreign policy is fundamentally non-aligned, as the Presidency and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) are wont to argue. It is a diplomatic fine line that Pretoria oftentimes has to walk. Traditionally, the country has been aligned with the West since the colonial and later apartheid days. In the post-apartheid dispensation led by the ANC, the country has to be shameless in aligning with old friends such as Russia who were by the side of the ANC in the trenches during the darkest days of the liberation war. This is a choice SA under the ANC ought to exercise without fear or favour.
It is vitally important that a former liberation movement such as the ANC never forgets its days of small of beginnings, during the dark days when friends were too few, they could be counted on the one hand only.
SA and Russia are important partners particularly in BRICS, a rapidly growing strategic pole of power in world politics. Collaboration and cooperation between Moscow and Pretoria need to be a non-negotiable, more so when it is questioned by the Western powers that supported the minority apartheid regime that classified the ANC as a terrorist organisation.
The Western powers that SA oftentimes feels the urge to please are too happy to treat SA as just another Third World country. As a result, tariffs, threats to be kicked out of AGOA, IMF loans are but some in a long list of traps that SA has to navigate. The EU, too, has lately sought to move closer to Pretoria after their relations with the Trump administration grew sour over several geopolitical differences.
I am not at all calling for relations with the West to be abandoned by Pretoria. Instead, I’d like to see Pretoria being the master of her own destiny just as Mandela insisted that the West cannot and should not dictate who SA’s friends should be.
