Iranian war ships – ANC government puts South Africa at significant risk of sanctions

3 April 2023

The decision by the ANC government to allow warships from Iran to dock at the Port of Cape Town has significantly escalated the risk of sanctions on South Africa by the West.

A note verbale sent to the International Relations Committee in Parliament by the US Embassy, warns South African authorities that “…entities and individuals that provide support, including maritime services to designated entities could be subject to sanctions risk under US authorities”.

By choosing to put a heavy economic price on South Africans for its reckless support to international pariah regimes like Iran, the ANC government is actively showing that it no longer acts in the best interest of the country.

This cannot be allowed to stand and the DA calls on the International Relations Committee to ask that Minister Naledi Pandor comes and explain why they have allowed Iranian warships to dock at a South African port despite warnings of possible economic repercussions by the international community.

It is infuriating that we now have a government that has dropped all pretense of rationality and is actively compromising South Africa’s image abroad, first by refusing to condemn Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and now by allowing Iranian warships to dock at the Port of Cape Town.

The Iranian government is not only a serial abuser of human rights on its citizens, it has been a major destabilizing force in the Middle East for years and has actively supported Russia’s war in Ukraine through the provision of military hardware.

The South African economy is on life support and economic sanctions in any form will lead to inevitable collapse. This is the price that the ANC wants long suffering South Africans to carry all because it wants to maintain relations with pariah states, whose contribution to our economy is negligible.

It is astounding to note how far the ANC has strayed from a supposed human rights based foreign policy to one where the protection of Putin and the Iran authoritarian regime takes precedence. Pandor’s defense of the world’s authoritarian regimes can no longer be allowed to continue, she must now account for her disastrous foreign policy stance.

Issued by Darren Bergman, DA Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, 3 March 2023