Russian and Chinese warships make political waves in Simon’s Town

Russian and Chinese warships arrived at Simon’s Town naval base this week, some of them reportedly to participate in the SA Navy Festival, while Indian and Brazilian warships are also expected to arrive soon to participate in a joint exercise with the SA Navy.

The arrival of the Russian frigate Neutrashimy, in particular — supported by the oil replenishment ship Akademik Pashin — at the port on Thursday made diplomatic and political waves.

Maritime sources said the frigate’s automatic identification system transponder, which allows other ships to detect it electronically, in part to avoid collisions, was switched off, suggesting the Russian and South African authorities were trying to conceal its presence.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) raised questions about how the ship’s visit affected SA’s supposed “non-partisan” posture toward Russia’s war against Ukraine and also criticised the SA Navy’s secrecy about the visits.

The Ukrainian Association of South Africa said that the SA Navy Festival was supposed to focus on defence “rather than the killing of civilians”, but by inviting a Russian vessel, South Africa was effectively promoting the Russian military, which was continuously bombing and killing Ukrainian civilians, including children, with 1,331 drone attacks in September alone.

Read more: Ukrainians outraged by SA hosting Russian Navy ship in Cape Town harbour

Currently docking in Simonstown: Neustrashimy, Pennant no 772, is the lead ship of the Neustrashimy-class frigate (Russian designation Project 11540 Yastreb) of the Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet. (Photo: Supplied)

:The Russian Navy frigate Neustrashimy, in Simonstown, South Africa. It is reported that the Russian Navy frigate Neustrashimy, accompanied by the replenishment vessel Akademik Pashin, arrived just in time for the SA Navy Festival this weekend. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

CNS Xuchang

Circumstances surrounding the docking of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy frigate CNS Xuchang at Simon’s Town on Tuesday were also rather murky. Maritime sources said it had docked to transfer sailors to a hospital for treatment after an accident in which another sailor had gone overboard and was still missing.

Sources in Simon’s Town said the ship was met in the dock by a medical team and two ambulances had sped away with their lights flashing and sirens blaring.

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warship, the Type 054A Frigate Chinese Navy Ship (CNS) CNS Xuchang (FFG536), arriving in Simon's Town bay. She is being escorted by Tug Imbuvu. (Photo:Charles Booysen #DeepSouthReport)

The next day, the CNS Xuchang left Simon’s Town. Sources said they believed it had headed for the Eastern Cape, possibly to the site of the accident, but that it was expected to return for the SA Navy Festival starting on Friday.

Daily Maverick requested confirmation of these circumstances from the SA Navy and Chinese embassy and also asked the SA Navy why Russia and China were the only foreign nations participating in the Navy Festival. Neither had replied before publication.

However, Chinese defence spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said during a recent press conference in China that the CNS Xuchang would participate in the SA Navy Festival. According to the official news agency Xinhua, he said the frigate would take part in several activities including a fleet review and would hold joint maritime exercises with the SA Navy.

It was not clear if such joint maritime exercises would take place and if so whether they would include the Russian frigate.

The joint maritime exercise conducted by South Africa, Russia and China off SA’s east coast in February 2023 sparked considerable controversy and was cited by members of the US Congress as one of the reasons why the US should downgrade relations with SA and possibly discontinue its preferential trade access to the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

Currently docking in Simonstown: Neustrashimy, Pennant no 772, is the lead ship of the Neustrashimy-class frigate (Russian designation Project 11540 Yastreb) of the Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet. (Photo: Supplied)

Brazilian and Indian frigates

What is clearer is that SA, India and Brazil will participate next week in the eighth Ibsamar — the India, Brazil, South Africa Maritime Exercise — reportedly off Saldanha, north of Cape Town on the West Coast. The Indian High Commission in South Africa confirmed that the Indian frigate INS Talwar was scheduled to visit South Africa from 7-16 October to participate in Ibsamar.

Diplomatic sources confirmed that the Brazilian frigate Defensora would also participate in Ibsamar, which has been held every two years since 2008. Ibsamar is an association of SA, India and Brazil through which they cooperate in a wide range of political, economic, defence and cultural activities.

It was later overshadowed by South Africa joining the wider BRIC forum, comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, in 2011. All five BRICS members are likely to have ships in South Africa over the next few days, which has raised questions among some observers about the possibility of a BRICS exercise, though BRICS does not have a defence cooperation agreement.

Non-alignment in question

DA defence spokesperson Chris Hattingh said the visits of the Russian and Chinese warships “might also be seen in the context of South Africa's non-partisan approach towards all nations. But having said that, our approach is more non-partisan towards some countries than others.”

He complained that the visits of the foreign ships had been handled “very clandestinely”. He said Parliament’s defence portfolio committee had not been informed even though there had been an opportunity to do so a few weeks ago when the committee had met.

“What we know of this is what we actually pick up in the media.”

The Ukrainian Association of South Africa said, “By inviting a Russian vessel, South Africa is effectively promoting the Russian military, which has waged war on sovereign Ukraine for over a decade. We believe this contradicts South Africa’s declared non-alignment stance.

“We call on South African authorities to immediately ban the promotion of the Russian military at the Navy Festival and distance themselves from the over 137,000 documented war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine.”

The association referred SA defence officials to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ report published on 1 October, which it said had stated that Russian authorities had subjected Ukrainian POWs to widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment. DM