President Ramaphosa must disclose which countries “threatened” South Africa with “penalties"

26 May 2023

In an Africa Day speech yesterday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said, "some countries, including our own, are being threatened with penalties for pursuing an independent foreign policy for adopting a position of non-alignment”.

This is a very serious claim by the President which could have further consequences for trade and investment into South Africa.

It is therefore imperative that the President takes the country into his confidence and discloses which countries have made these threats, what the nature of them are and what penalties have been suggested.

Further to this, it would be important to know if Cabinet has been briefed by the President on this latest development and what its response to this situation is.

But let us be clear: the ANC government's proclaimed 'non-alignment' is a charade, which was fully exposed with the controversial offloading of weapons onto the Russian vessel, the 'Lady R', in Simonstown. This act brazenly endorsed Russia's aggression and underscored the ANC's alignment with Russian interests, overlooking the best interests of the South African people.

The Democratic Alliance has posed questions to the President to get to the bottom of these threats and what has been done about it so that the country can better understand what the economic consequences could be for our non non-aligned position in the Russia/Ukraine war.

Issued by Dean Macpherson MP - DA Shadow Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, 26 May 2023