South Africa says US envoy apologised for alleging country supplied arms to Russia

JOHANNESBURG/WASHINGTON – South Africa on Friday said a US envoy has “apologised unreservedly” over

claims that the country sold weapons to Russia.

The US Ambassador to South Africa, Mr Reuben Brigety, said on Thursday he was confident that a Russian ship under US sanctions took aboard weapons from Naval Base Simon’s Town last December, suggesting the transfer was not in line with Pretoria’s stance of neutrality in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Mr Brigety was summoned on Friday to meet South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor.

The South African Foreign Ministry “expressed the government’s utter displeasure with his conduct and statements made yesterday”, it said.

It said Mr Brigety “admitted that he crossed the line and apologised unreservedly to the government and the people of South Africa”.

Mr Brigety said on Twitter: “I was grateful for the opportunity to speak with Foreign Minister Pandor this evening and correct any misimpressions left by my public remarks.”

Western diplomats were alarmed at South Africa carrying out naval exercises with Russia and China in 2023, and at the timing of a visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

South Africa is one of Russia’s most important allies on a continent divided over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but says it is impartial and has abstained from voting on United Nations resolutions on the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday discussed the conflict in Ukraine in a phone call with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Kremlin said.

Mr Ramaphosa’s office said on Thursday that an inquiry led by a retired judge would look into the US allegation. On Friday, a minister responsible for arms control and a Foreign Ministry spokesman said South Africa had not approved any arms shipment to Russia last December.

“We didn’t approve any arms to Russia... It wasn’t sanctioned or approved by us,” Communications Minister Mondli Gungubele, who chaired the National Conventional Arms Control Committee when the purported shipment took place, told Radio 702.

He did not say whether or not an unapproved shipment had left South Africa.

South Africa’s Department of Defence said on Friday that it would give its side of the story to the government’s inquiry.

The US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a phone call with Ms Pandor, “and reiterated cooperation on shared priorities, including health, trade and energy”.

Refinitiv shipping data showed that after leaving Simon’s Town, the vessel, Lady R, sailed north to Mozambique, spending Jan 7 to 11 in the port of Beira before continuing to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

It arrived at the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea on Feb 16, the data showed.

The United States placed the Lady R and Transmorflot, the shipping company it is linked to, under sanctions in May 2022 on the grounds that the company “transports weapons for the (government of Russia)”.

Washington has warned that countries providing material support to Russia may be denied access to United States markets.

“This is not just a verbal warning, this is something that the Biden administration has shown through its actions that it is willing to do, including by sanctioning companies in places like China and Turkey,” said Mr Edward Fishman, a foreign policy expert who worked on Russia sanctions during former US president Barack Obama’s administration.

Mr Cameron Hudson, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and now at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said he thought it was unlikely that Washington would impose sanctions or suspend South Africa from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or Agoa, a major US trade preference programme for sub-Saharan Africa, although he said there were grounds to.

The authorities in South Africa’s opposition-run Western Cape province said they feared losing a market for exports such as oranges, macadamia nuts and wine.

The US allegation over the weapons has heaped pressure on the rand currency, already weighed down by concerns over a power crisis. It hit an all-time low early on Friday before regaining some ground, but remained at its weakest in three years. REUTERS