Foreign governments fear Phala Phala could destabilise South Africa

12 Dec 2022

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor has been fielding calls from her international counterparts who are concerned that the Phala Phala saga could plunge South Africa into instability and conflict.

Minister Naledi Pandor is reassuring her international counterparts that South Africa remains a stable democracy and there is no need to withdraw their investments or assets.

Speaking at a wide-ranging end-of-the-year media briefing on Monday, Pandor also said it was necessary to establish what cargo, if any, the controversial Russian cargo ship, Lady R, had loaded or unloaded in Simon’s Town in the dead of night last week, to ensure that no US sanctions had been breached by South Africa.

Pandor told journalists a few of her foreign counterparts had called her to ask about the implications of the recent section 89 panel report which found prima facie evidence of on impeachment case against President Cyril Ramaphosa because of his handling of the theft of US$580,000 from his game farm, Phala Phala, two years ago.

Pandor said the foreign ministers didn’t want to hear the “minutiae” of the case:

‘Is SA stable?’

“They are more interested in; is South Africa stable? Is there a problem? Should we anticipate that there will be some kind of conflict emerging that could harm the stability?

“And I have assured them that even when the temperature appears very high in South Africa, we remain a stable democracy.

“And that we have the rule of law which needs to be exercised to its logical conclusion... they must allow the processes to continue and not be alarmed and start calling on their private sector to withdraw investment or assets.”

She also insisted “we won’t have a different president in 2023. It will remain President Ramaphosa unless something unexpected occurs. But in my own limited analysis, I believe he will remain President.”

Pandor declined to give her own assessment of the section 89 panel’s report, saying Ramaphosa should react since he was the subject of it.

“And he’s acted in terms of the law and the Constitution in taking the report on review, which is his right.”

Pandor said she would show her own reaction by voting on the report in Parliament.

Lady R mystery

She referred questions about the mysterious Lady R Russian cargo ship to her defence counterpart, Thandi Modise, and to Home Affairs officials.

But she also responded to the warning issued by the US embassy that the Lady R was under US sanctions for carrying arms for Russia, so anyone who did business with the ship could also fall foul of those sanctions.

“I think we need to clear up as to exactly what is this cargo, if there was any, so we can assure or give an indication that South Africa did not breach any sanctions,” Pandor said.

She added, though, that these unilateral sanctions (by the US alone) were an “invidious” interference in a sovereign country’s responsibility for its own policy, and it would have been easier for South Africa to respond to UN sanctions.

Greylisting

Pandor said she would be “very surprised” if the international money laundering watchdog body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), greylisted South Africa in February next year as feared, because her government had done all it believed was necessary to address the inadequacies the FATF had identified in South Africa’s combating of money laundering and especially terrorist financing leaving the country.

She said South Africa’s financial regulatory systems were far superior to those of many other countries.

She added that if the FATF did greylist South Africa, “we would have a very clear sense of what it is that remains unaddressed and then address it”.

Eswatini

Pandor also revealed that regional efforts to persuade Eswatini’s King Mswati to launch a national political dialogue in his troubled country were continuing, despite a lack of apparent progress.

On 1 November 2021, President Ramaphosa, who was then chairing the security organ of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), announced he had met Mswati in Eswatini and the king had agreed to launch a national dialogue, with SADC support.

The meeting followed widespread unrest in Eswatini, especially in June and July 2021 when buildings and vehicles were destroyed by rioting pro-democracy activists, scores of whom were shot dead by security forces.

The national dialogue that Mswati agreed to in November was to have begun early this year, but has not done so yet, amid signs that Mswati is reneging on his undertaking.

However, Pandor said on Monday that SADC had agreed in October that the new SADC organ chairperson, Namibian President Hage Geingob, would continue Ramaphosa’s efforts to facilitate the national dialogue.

Geingob had met Mswati in Eswatini last month and Namibia had reported back to SADC that “it had been made quite clear to Eswatini that we did believe that a national dialogue is an extremely important step… and that, as the SADC, we will work step in step with the Kingdom of Eswatini to help them hold a successful national dialogue”.

She added that Geingob would give a progress report to the SADC security organ troika early in 2023. “But we believe a national dialogue remains the only possible step towards stability in the kingdom of Eswatini,” Pandor said.

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On the row that erupted at the African Union over the decision by AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamet to admit Israel as an observer to the AU, Pandor said the five-president committee appointed at the AU summit in February to resolve the matter, had not yet met.

She said it seemed the AU was effectively freezing the position which pertained before Faki’s decision, that Israel was not an observer.

“But I would like it (Faki’s decision) to be reversed in formal terms,” Pandor said. South Africa had led the charge against Faki’s decision to admit Israel and Pandor said South Africa was supported by “several of the larger countries” in its view.

But it is by no means clear what most AU members feel about this, as the decision has never been put to the vote.

Rwanda relations

Pandor also disclosed that she was still trying to normalise relations with Rwanda, which were disrupted when South Africa expelled most of the country’s diplomats in 2014 for the assassination in South Africa of former Rwandan intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya and several attempts on the life of former defence chief of staff, General Kayumba Nyamwasa. Rwanda reciprocated by expelling most of South Africa’s diplomats, and relations have remained strained.

The Rwandans in particular have exerted pressure on South Africa to resume normal relations, mainly because Rwandans are finding it harder to get visas to visit South Africa.

Pandor said: “We are working to ensure the matter of visas is eased for Rwandan citizens, but with the necessary protections relating to incidents in the past…”

In other words, she seemed to be saying, Pretoria remained concerned that visas should not be given to would-be assassins. But she said she was confident the problem could be resolved.

US-Africa summit

Pandor noted that she would be representing Ramaphosa at US President Joe Biden’s US-Africa summit in Washington this week. Ramaphosa told Biden when he met him in September that he would be unable to attend because of the ANC’s vital elective conference this week.

A total of 49 African governments, plus Moussa Faki as chair of the AU Commission, are expected to attend the summit, which Pandor said would focus on three themes; the US partnering with Africa on the AU’s development vision Agenda 2063; multilateral partnerships with Africa to meet global challenges, and promoting food security and food systems resilience.

Pandor said she would deliver remarks on partnering on Agenda 2063. DM

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