Even as Russian rockets were allegedly sending deadly cluster bombs onto a train station in eastern Ukraine, killing scores of people, South Africa’s International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor was defending the country’s decision to abstain from a United Nations vote to expel Russia from the international body’s Human Rights Council.
Stating South Africa’s position that peaceful resolution was the best option in the conflict, Pandor opposed any suggestion that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) countries should be part of efforts to end the war.
She also lashed out at UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres for his absence during this global crisis. She said South Africa’s abstention was based on its opposition to the use of the UN as a weapon of war, rather than for the advancement of peace in the world.
“You can’t use the UN instruments as tools of war. They are there to advance peace and security. So that is why we abstained,” Pandor said.
But Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen called on the government to abandon its “immoral pro-Kremlin stance” and stand with the people of Ukraine, who have been under siege from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression for the past six weeks.
In an official statement, the DA said: “No amount of rationalisation and spin will detract from the fact that the SA government has clearly chosen to be on the wrong side of history.
“And their abstention yesterday is proof of this.”
The party said Pandor “has yet again tried to fool the SA public by claiming government’s nonaligned position on the ongoing war does not boil down to support for its historic comrade, Russia”.
International relations expert Prof Jan Venter from North-West University said SA, by abstaining, was trying not to offend Russia or the West.
“South Africa is really trying not to offend America or the Western world and it’s really trying not to offend the Eastern world. That is why we are trying to be as constructive as possible and that’s the reason for our neutrality at the UN,” Venter said.
South Africa has close ties with Russia as they are both members of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) alliance and because of the military training that the former Soviet Union gave to members of the ANC to fight against apartheid.
Pandor stuck to her nonaligned guns, though, insisting that the UN should not be utilised in a partisan manner and must be a body that stands for human rights for all, citing Israel’s illegal land occupations and alleged atrocities in Palestine.
“For its status to be respected this has to be a basic condition,” she said.
She hinted that South Africa had been lobbied by foreign countries to vote in favour of the UN resolution this week, but it had decided to stand by its position to abstain. It also rejected suggestions that efforts were being made by some Nato country presidents to achieve peace in Ukraine.
“We have suggested we should look elsewhere. We should look to other leaders who might be key interlocutors that help us to walk and work towards peace.
“We know there are some who opposed our call for peace and negotiations, who continue to hold the view that conflict will somehow solve the problem. But we are afraid there will be more deaths, greater humanitarian suffering and many more abuses of the civilian population of Ukraine,” Pandor said.
She said South Africa had called for an end to the war and for the beginning of genuine negotiations. There had been a breach of trust and both Ukraine and Russia felt insecure and, to some degree, Ukrainian citizens were the “victims of a breach of trust”.
South Africa stood ready to mediate peace in the war if invited by the United Nations, the minister said.
The country had experience, the institutions and individuals who could play a very important role to assist to end the conflict, she said.
During the vote in the UN General Assembly on the suspension of Russia’s membership of the Human Rights Council this week, South Africa’s deputy permanent representative at the UN, Xolisa Mabhongo, said it was premature and prejudging the work of the international commission of inquiry established by the Human Rights Commission on the situation in Ukraine.
Pandor, the international relations department’s director-general, Zane Dangor, South Africa’s permanent representatives to the UN Mathu Joyini from New York and Mxolisi Nkosi from Geneva and other officials said South Africa believed the UN General Assembly resolution did not advance peace.
“It may look very good to vote ‘yes’ but does it help? This is the challenge. We could be very popular by voting ‘yes’ all the time or the way that everybody thinks we should,” Pandor said.
Isolating and placing Russia outside global governance institutions was almost giving it a licence to do as it pleased, she added.
The minister rejected suggestions she and President Cyril Ramaphosa did not speak with one voice on the war.
She said she sought his advice at all times and also widely consulted with all her senior department officials and its UN ambassadors to establish a common position.
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