‘A beautiful, wonderful process’ — ANCYL defends sending observers to Russia’s sham referendums in Ukraine

People take part in a rally in support of the Donbass region joining the Russian Federation at Peter&Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia, 23 September 2022. From September 23 to 27, residents of the Donetsk People's Republic, Luhansk People's Republic, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions will vote in the Referendum to join the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Federation will ensure security at referendums in the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and support their results. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Anatoly Maltsev)

By Peter Fabricius

28 Sep 2022

The referendums in four eastern and southern Ukrainian provinces on Russia’s border have been widely condemned in the West as illegal and sham exercises to legitimise Russia’s military occupation and its intention to annex the occupied territories by force.

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has defended its decision to send several observers to the referendums Russia held in eastern Ukraine asking citizens if they want their conquered territories to be incorporated into Russia.

The referendums in four eastern and southern Ukrainian provinces on Russia’s border have been widely condemned in the West as illegal and sham exercises to legitimise Russia’s military occupation and its intention to annex the occupied territories by force.

The ANCYL said in a statement on Tuesday that it had been invited to observe the “referenda” and that “observer missions are commonplace in the arena of international politics and have [neither] equated to a country nor political party taking a particular stance”.

Yet, apart from sending an implicit message by their sheer presence, some of the ANCYL office bearers who were observing the referendums inside Ukraine also explicitly expressed support for Russia’s right to ask Ukrainians if they want part of their country to become part of Russia.

In occupied Melitopol, ANC Youth League member Khulekani Skosana praises Russia’s referendum on annexing the Ukrainian province of Zaporizhzhia. (Screenshot: YouTube)

Khulekani Skosana, described as the head of the ANCYL’s international relations subcommittee, was this week quoted as praising the referendums when he was apparently in Crimea — which Russia annexed in 2014. However, by Monday he had apparently travelled across the international border into Ukraine itself and was interviewed by Russian TV from the city of Melitopol in the southeastern Ukrainian province of Zaporizhzhia. Russia captured Melitopol earlier this year, though it has not managed to seize the whole province.

Skosana told a Russian TV reporter that the people of Zaporizhzhia had been “longing for this opportunity, and kudos to the Russian Federation for granting them this opportunity to express themselves”.

“As young people of South Africa, as Africans, we believe in democracy. And we are advocates and ambassadors of democracy. We believe in self-determination.

“Many media platforms are calling this a sham … That is a lie because we’ve been interviewing voters unabated and randomly. And we are saying to the Russian people you are doing absolutely well. You are not alone. We are with you as we fight for self-determination.

“And we are demanding a multipolar world. We are not going to be forcefully led by the West. We believe in democracy. And this process has proven that this is a process for the people and by the people. So, quite an amazing feat. We congratulate the people of Zaporizhzhia on a successful referendum. And we could see them participating. We will go back home and tell our people this has been a beautiful, wonderful process. Congratulations to the people of Zaporizhzhia!”

Somewhere in the Ukrainian province of Donetsk, ANC Youth League member Venus Lorato Blennies says the people of Donetsk have waited eight years to vote on incorporation into Russia. (Screenshot: YouTube)

Meanwhile, another ANCYL member, Venus Lorato Blennies, was also interviewed by Russian TV, apparently in the Ukrainian province of Donetsk, which Russia partly occupied in 2014 and earlier this year.

Blennies, wearing an ANCYL beanie, told a Russian journalist that she had spoken to voters at several polling stations and they had told her: “This is a moment they have always been waiting for. Some of them have stated that it’s been about eight years of waiting for this moment,” she said, apparently referring to the eight years since Russia first occupied parts of Donetsk.

“They’re very happy for the opportunity they have been given to be able to have an expression of their will. To have freedom of expression. To be able to have freedom of association and a choice for that matter.

“What stands out, that people are given freedom of choice; people are given choice of associating themselves with who they want to belong to.”

Another ANCYL member, Stella Mondlane, who is the first deputy chairperson of the ANC’s North West Provincial Executive Committee and the Speaker of the Matlosana (Klerksdorp) city council, has also been quoted by Russian media as praising the referendums.

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Daily Maverick understands that the ANCYL members were invited to participate in a “referendum observation mission” organised by Russia’s Association for Free Research and International Cooperation (Afric), which is regarded by Western governments as a propaganda tool to observe, and endorse, elections which Western election observation missions dismiss as rigged — such as in Zimbabwe.

Afric is widely believed to be run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. This week, for the first time, Prigozhin publicly admitted that he also runs the Wagner Group, a private military company which is becoming increasingly involved in conflicts, including in Ukraine and Africa.

International Idea — the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance — this week deplored “the illegal and illegitimate holding of referendums in Ukraine’s occupied territories on joining the Russian Federation. Staged to imitate the pursuit of self-determination of people, they are an egregious abuse of this direct democracy tool by a hostile occupying power.

“These referendums violate the Constitution of Ukraine, which states that the organisation and procedure for conducting referendums ‘are determined exclusively by the laws of Ukraine’ (Art. 92).

“They are conducted in gross violation of established principles of international humanitarian and human rights law. In the context of Russia’s continued assault and ongoing occupation, the organisation of a referendum aided or organised by occupying forces presumptively violates the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the IV Geneva Convention.

“Based on the above, in no circumstances can these referendums be considered as an exercise of a right to self-determination through remedial secession.  

“International Idea calls on the international community to condemn these referendums as illegitimate and illegal.”

People take part in a rally in support of the Donbas region joining the Russian Federation in St Petersburg, Russia, 23 September 2022. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Anatoly Maltsev)

On Tuesday, CNN reported experts in the field as saying that foreigners who were being cited by Russian state media as international observers were violating numerous international principles of election observation and were engaging in nothing more than “political activism”.

“What they do is not election observation at all,” CNN quoted Anton Shekhovtsov as saying. Shekhovtsov is an expert on fake election observation for the European Platform for Democratic Elections, a German and European Union-backed NGO.

“It’s a political activity that is only masquerading as election observation,” he said.

The ANCYL’s statement on Tuesday did not have an official letterhead. However, Skosana, the referendum observer in Melitopol, posted it on his Twitter account, which indicated that it was genuine.

The statement said the ANCYL modelled its approach to international relations on its parent body, the ANC. It noted that at its recent national policy conference the ANC had resolved that:

“The Russian military operation in Ukraine has turned into a costly war, with Nato indirectly getting involved through the unprecedented supply of lethal weapons as part of the larger Western support for Ukraine against Russia.”

The ANCYL repeated the South African government’s claim that it had taken a neutral position on the conflict and slammed the Democratic Alliance (DA) for clearly taking Ukraine’s side in the war. It accused the DA of spreading lies about the ANCYL’s participation in the observation of the referendums, in order to support Ukraine.

This referred to a DA statement on Monday which said the ANCYL had “committed a serious breach of international law by sending ‘observers’ to the referenda”.

The DA said the ANCYL was “lending official credibility to these sham polls”, seemingly with the ANC’s backing; “giving a blank cheque to other pariah nations and governments to annex whatever territory they please, knowing they will have the support of the ANC-led South African government”.

The DA demanded to know who had paid for the ANCYL’s participation in the observer mission.

The ANCYL insisted that it was participating in the observation mission “to make informed decisions … not to lend legitimacy to the process but rather to ensure that different territories are able to receive a first-hand account of the events”. It denied that its observation mission contravened any international law or government protocol.

It accused the DA of hypocrisy and deceit because it said it had deployed its then leader Mmusi Maimane on an observer mission to Israel “despite the South African government resolving on pledging solidarity with Palestine”.

It also noted that current DA leader John Steenhuisen had gone on a “fact-finding” mission to Ukraine while a former DA Tshwane mayor had visited Taiwan, which was against South African foreign policy.

The ANCYL said it refused to account to the DA about its internal affairs.

The statement added: “The foolish assertions that public funds were utilized for the observer mission must be condemned with [the] disdain it deserves.” DM

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