DA launches petition regarding SA’s complicit stance on Russia

7 March 2022

Note to Editors: Please find an attached soundbite by Darren Bergman MP.

The DA has launched a petition for the South African government to take a decisive stand on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Since the invasion, 10 days ago, the ANC government has flip-flopped on its stance multiple times. Government didn’t want to take a stand, then the Department for International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) – rightly – condemned the invasion, after which President Cyril Ramahposa lambasted DIRCO Minister Naledi Pandor’s unmeasured stance. Mere hours later, three ANC government representatives – Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thandi Modise, Chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) General Rudzani Maphwanya, and the Director-General of the Department of Defence and Military Veterans’ special advisor Tsepe Motumi – attended a cocktail party hosted by the Russian ambassador to South Africa, Ilya Rogachev, and the Russian Defence Attaché, Colonel Dmitriy Priimachuck. And to add insult to injury, South Africa also abstained from the United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s vote to condemn the invasion.

In the face of such an overwhelming atrocity, South Africa cannot stand idly by while its comrade ravishes a neighbouring country. Historic loyalty does not trump declarations of war.

The ANC government must use our BRICS-connection and council moderation and peace to the Russian government. Government must also:

Ensure that Russia is held accountable to the Geneva convention and international law;

Ensure that Russia does not use any weaponry that violates the Lieber Code; and

Not assist in facilitating or hosting any monies, transactions or business deals that could counter the sanctions that have been introduced by the international community as measures to bring about an immediate withdrawal.

Unless South Africa does all it can to condemn the invasion and urge Russia to withdraw, it will be complicit in this needless war and have the blood of multitudes on its hands. Let’s be clear, the Russian invasion of Ukraine cannot go unchallenged. And the ANC government cannot try to maintain a neutral position. There will be no neutrality in this war.

Issued by Darren Bergman, DA Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, 7 March 2022