Ukrainians are shedding blood on our behalf, but South Africa treats it like a picnic, says Trevor Tutu

Performers in 'We Stand for Freedom'. (Photo: Hannah Zhukovina for UKZA)

By Peter Fabricius

24 Feb 2023

At a Cape Town event to mark the first anniversary of the war in Europe, Trevor Tutu asked whether South Africans were oblivious to the fact that Ukrainians were ‘fighting for our freedom’. A Ukrainian representative responded that South Africans had been inspired by Ukraine’s current fight for its freedom. ‘It’s maybe just a little bit delayed in time.’

Trevor Tutu, son of the late Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, says he’s amazed that South Africans seem to be indifferent to the fact that Ukrainians are shedding their blood to preserve democracy for everyone, including South Africans.

“Is everyone else unaware of the fact that you’re fighting for our freedom?” Tutu asked Ukrainians in South Africa at a discussion in Cape Town on Thursday about Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is one year old today.

Trevor Tutu, son of the late Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaks during a discussion in Cape Town about Russia’s war in Ukraine , 23 February, 2023.. (Photo: Hannah Zhukovina UKZA)

“Or are we just happy to let you get on with it? I am amazed that people who understand the history of Europe are allowing your blood to be shed on our behalf… I have a real issue that democracy lives or survives at the borders of Ukraine. And we’re treating it as a Sunday-afternoon picnic,” he said to applause.

Tutu appeared to be addressing not only the controversial “non-aligned” position of the South African government towards the war, but also his perception that ordinary South Africans seem to be indifferent to what the Ukrainians are doing in resisting Russia’s invasion.

The discussion followed a contemporary dance performance, “We Stand for Freedom”, which was choreographed by Kateryna Aloshyna who is also president of the Ukrainian Association of South Africa (UAZA). The dance expressed the Ukrainians’ suffering over the past year of war and also linked it to South Africa’s struggle for freedom from apartheid.

Dzvinka Kachur of the Ukrainian Association of South Africa and Phumi Nhlapo of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. (Photo: Hannah Zhukovina UKZA)

The evening was organised by the association, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the NGO Resilient Ukraine.

Dzvinka Kachur, another UAZA representative, thanked Tutu for his comments but said that, in fact, many South Africans were supporting them. She said the Desmond and Leah Tutu museum was a source of inspiration for Ukrainians at this time.

“South Africa was an inspiration for political prisoners during the time of the Soviet Union… Lots of people were praising Mandela and saw that they were not the only ones in prison, that there was also Nelson Mandela and many others who were prosecuted and fighting for their freedom.”

Read in Daily Maverick: “After 365 terrible days of war, Ukraine has proved it cannot be broken and defeated”

South Africans had in turn been inspired by Ukraine’s current fight for its freedom. “It’s maybe just a little bit delayed in time.”

Kachur looked back at the immense destruction Russia and visited on Ukraine in 12 months and the fact that her country had nevertheless thwarted the Kremlin’s intentions to take over the country.

The dance performance expressed Ukrainians’ suffering over the past year of war. (Photo: Supplied)

She stressed the impact of the war beyond Ukraine’s borders, including in South Africa where the price of wheat, fuel and fertiliser had all risen steeply.

Kachur said Russia’s occupation of Ukraine’s nuclear power station in Zaporizhzhia and its bombing of nuclear research centres had put the planet in danger.

When Russia had invaded Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the world did nothing.

“Putin denied his invasion and then world leaders did not know what to do if your partner is looking into your eyes and simply lying,” Kachur said.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Ukraine should negotiate while it still has a country, says eminent US Russia scholar”

The reaction was different after Russia’s invasion of 24 February 2022. “Ukraine is supported today during the fight for its freedom by 54 countries around the world.

“But the Russian invasion also means that countries around the world will prioritise military spending over the developmental goals and the achievement of the sustainable development goals.”

The event was organised by the Ukrainian Association of South Africa, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the NGO Resilient Ukraine. (Photo: Supplied)

Africa stood to lose the most from the decline in economic development, especially if Ukraine lost the war.

“Standing with Ukraine will help to restore the international order and to send a message that a mighty country cannot continue its colonisation of its neighbour.

“It will also stop the Russian recolonisation policy that it’s rolling out in Ukraine and also on the African continent.”

‘It’s what the Arch would have done’

Phumi Nhlapo, chief operation officer of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had begun just after Archbishop Desmond Tutu had died, and that her foundation had been among the first in South Africa to condemn the war on day one.

“We felt strongly it’s what the Arch would have done. He was a very outspoken person and we felt an obligation to say something at that moment. Archbishop Tutu… did not take a neutral position when he saw injustice was being done. Because he felt very strongly that to take a neutral position was to side with the oppressor.”

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Tim Murithi, head of peace-building interventions at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, explained how enormous the challenge of finding a just peace would be in Ukraine where about 65,000 war crimes had been committed in the war over the past year.

Read in Daily Maverick: “What could — and should — the Ukraine war cost South Africa?”

“When the guns are finally silent in Ukraine, what form will that just peace take? Will it simply be a negative peace defined only by the absence of violence? Or will there scope to forge a positive peace, a just peace, based on addressing human rights violations, the atrocities of the war.

“How do we begin to address all of these issues? How do we document the truth of what’s happened? How do we engage in self-introspection, surfacing the trauma that’s been endured? Putting in place places to restore and heal the victims and survivors. What will it take to make reparations and repair the damage that has been done by the people of Ukraine at a fundamental level of their humanity?

“And what about the perpetrators? Is prosecution sufficient? What more will it take? And the transformation of the state as it continues on its journey of healing will be crucial.

Performers in 'We Stand for Freedom'. (Photo: Supplied)

Murithi noted that Archbishop Tutu, as chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, had guided South African society through these processes, supporting individuals and communities as they were dealing with the legacies of the past.

“And he encouraged us always to find ways to support each other even in our state of trauma and woundedness.”

Tutu had taught that even those who were traumatised had a responsibility to help those around them to walk that journey of healing too.

“So, we are in effect wounded healers,” Muruthi said, suggesting that South Africans therefore also had to help Ukrainians to deal with the trauma of their war. DM

Fabricius moderated the discussion.

There are still performances of the dance tonight, 25th and 27th at 17h00 and 19h00 at the HCC Homecoming Centre, corner Buitenkant and Caledon st, District Six. Tickets here

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‘It’s what the Arch would have done’