PRETORIA: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to South Africa Thursday underscores a shift in Pretoria’s stance on Russia’s invasion more than three years ago, which it had initially refused to condemn, analysts say.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will host Zelensky on his first visit to Africa just weeks after South Africa joined for the first time a UN General Assembly resolution criticising Russia for the war.
The UN’s February resolution “reaffirmed its commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity” against “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation”.
“South Africa has been criticised previously for taking quite an ambiguous position in defining the conflict,” Institute for Security Studies researcher Priyal Singh told AFP.
“And I think the UN resolution basically set that straight: South Africa has recognised that it needs to take a much less ambiguous role and to robustly engage with all sides,” he said.
Pretoria’s close ties with the Kremlin, forged by its support in the struggle against the previous apartheid regime, has raised eyebrows at home and abroad, with attempts to pressure it to drop a non-aligned stance.
The relationship even fuelled claims by a former US ambassador that a Russian ship docked in Cape Town in 2022 was stocked with weapons intended for the conflict.
South Africa wants to believe that it can work with both sides in the conflict and facilitate an inclusive peace process, perhaps drawing on its own relatively smooth transition out of white-minority rule in 1994 after decades of armed struggle.
The visit is a “continuation of our efforts to try to bring about a peaceful resolution”, Ramaphosa’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said last month. “This is the position that South Africa has held from the beginning of that conflict.”
Ramaphosa invited the Ukrainian leader in February as South Africa was coming under attack from US President Donald Trump, who had also taken aim at Zelensky and moved to negotiate an end to the war without involving Ukraine or its European allies.
As Washington has cut international aid and trade, South Africa has moved closer to Europe which had also been critical of its ambiguous position on Russia’s war, Singh said.
“South Africa is certainly trying to find common ground with its European partners; it recognises their importance,” he told AFP.
The shift has been noted by Europe. “South Africa has an increasingly positive role,” said Fulgencio Garrido Ruiz, deputy head of the EU mission in South Africa.
“This is a positive step in multilateral efforts to achieve an inclusive, sustainable, and comprehensive peace,” he said of Zelensky’s visit.
It does not come at the expense of its ties with Moscow, though, with Ramaphosa referring to Russia in October as an “ally and precious friend”.
He and President Vladimir Putin spoke Monday to “affirm the strong bilateral relations”, according to a South African government statement.
“South Africa will continue engaging all interested and affected parties, including the government of Ukraine on finding a path to peace,” it said.
While this may be Pretoria’s objective, Kyiv’s interests also lie in growing its international standing and its footprint on the continent.
Zelensky is hoping for an invitation from South Africa to the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, said Garrido Ruiz.
It knows it needs to make more diplomatic effort in Africa in the face of Russia’s “very aggressive communication strategy”, he said.
Ukraine also wants Pretoria’s full condemnation of the war, Ukrainian ambassador Liubov Abravitova told the Sunday Times newspaper.
“I believe that we will see South Africa officially condemn the killing of Ukrainian people,” she said.
“We are in a war for survival and the only way to stop it is to condemn the violation of international law and to stand in support of the territorial integrity of countries.”
