Dear Minister Pandor, SA’s foreign policy choices are a betrayal of Mandela’s solemn pledge

Dear Minister Naledi Pandor, 

I am writing to you as a former South African ambassador, in fact, the first ambassador appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve in our new democratic dispensation, as I presented my credentials to the king of Thailand in Bangkok on 27 April 1994 — the day of our first democratic elections. 

At the start of his presidency, Mandela declared that human rights and democracy would be the cornerstone of South Africa’s foreign policy, and I was proud to represent that policy abroad. 

However, lately there seems to have been a significant shift away from this policy commitment: now we hear you and your Dirco colleagues stressing “neutrality” and “non-alignment”. You have been stating this as the basis for South Africa’s policy towards the Russia-Ukraine conflict, even with Russia being the clear aggressor in this conflict, having launched a full-on, unprovoked military attack on its independent, sovereign neighbour Ukraine.  

Archbishop Desmond Tutu used to say: If you choose “neutrality” between an oppressor and an oppressed, you are siding with the oppressor. South Africa’s policy on the Ukraine situation shows the truth of Tutu’s observation. Soon after the start of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and after Dirco hastily rolled back its initial more or less “neutral” public statement on the issue, which dared to use the term “Russian invasion”,  President Cyril Ramaphosa phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin “to get his perspective on the Ukrainian situation”. 

Neither Ramaphosa nor any of his ministers (including you, Minister Pandor) were similarly keen to get the perspective of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, ignoring repeated appeals by Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa to do just that. The eventual call to Zelensky, as explained by Ramaphosa himself, was much more about explaining South Africa’s stance than getting Zelensky’s perspective. This clearly shows that not even a semblance of “neutrality” was observed; instead, every effort was made to avoid any condemnation or criticism of Russia for its unprovoked attack on Ukraine. 

And now our defence minister, Thandi Modise, is in Moscow to attend and address Russia’s 10th international security conference at the invitation of her Russian counterpart, General Sergei Shoigu. This is presumably with your blessing, as the Cabinet acts as a collective and we have not noted any criticism nor condemnation of Modise’s visit by you or any of your Cabinet colleagues. 

Apart from the ethical and moral issues posed by this visit, one simple question can be asked: if Zelensky had organised a similar “security conference” in Kyiv, would Modise have accepted to attend and address such an event? You and we all know the answer. Again, so much for your “neutrality”.