May 28. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has announced this Sunday the creation of an independent panel to investigate the accusations made by the United States following the landing of a Russian ship that docked at a naval base in Cape Town in December 2022.
Washington accused South Africa at the beginning of May of providing ammunition to Russia for later use in the war in Ukraine, citing as an example the landing of a Russian ship, the ‘Lady R’, at a naval base in Cape Town, although the African country denied these accusations.
In an attempt to clarify what happened, Ramaphosa has appointed Judge Phineas Mathale Deon Mojapelo as president of the panel, while lawyer Leah Gcabashe and Enver Surty, a member of the African National Congress (ANC), will be the other two members of the body, has collected the newspaper ‘The Sowetan’.
The spokesman for the South African Presidency, Vincent Magwenya, explained at a press conference that Ramaphosa has decided to launch the investigation due to the “seriousness” of the accusations, as well as the “impact” of the matter on the country’s foreign policy.
The South African president criticized during an Africa Day speech on Thursday that Western countries threatened sanctions against those who did not side with Russia in the war in Ukraine.
Ramaphosa has insisted on the need to resolve the conflict in Ukraine through diplomatic channels and has denied any collusion with Moscow, but in recent months pressure has grown on him given the possibility that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will attend in August to the BRIC leaders summit.
