President Cyril Ramaphosa has been hailed for being frank and open during his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg.
During his discussion with Putin, Ramaphosa repeatedly used the word “war” and asked for both countries to respect territorial sovereignty, a unequivocal message to Putin, as leader of the invading nation, that he had violated this central provision of the United Nations Charter.
In his weekly online newsletter yesterday, the president described peace talks with the two countries as “historic”, although his opponents criticised him for the visit, which was yet to yield results.
Ramaphosa said the African mission he led had put forward a 10-point plan which included de-escalation of the conflict, the recognition of countries’ sovereignty, unimpeded grain exports through the Black Sea and sending prisoners of war and children back to their countries of origin.
Dirk Kotzé, a professor of politics at the University of South Africa, said Ramaphosa was trying to demonstrate that South Africa really was nonaligned by being tougher on Putin than on Ukraine.
The proposals he presented to Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, put pressure on Russia to back off.
“This is a deliberate move to show South Africa isn’t pro-Russia. This, itself, is important and would help change South Africa’s image of being seen as pro-Russian,” he said.
Kotzé said the African mission’s proposals that Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty should be respected and that the children taken by Russia during the war should be returned home would give credibility to the process and legitimise South Africa’s role as peacemaker and not a Russian ally.
