US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety on Thursday accused Cyril Ramaphosa’s government of supplying weapons to Russia via a cargo ship that secretly docked at a naval base near the city of Cape Town for three days in December. Brigety said the United States is certain the weapons were loaded onto the vessel at Simon’s Town Naval Base and then transported to Russia. The ambassador called the possibility “extremely serious”.
So far, South Africa has maintained a neutral stance on the war in Ukraine, saying it hopes for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. In recent months, however, he has shown a certain closeness to Russia: in January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was hosted in the country for talks in January. A few weeks later the South African navy participated in an exercise together with Russian and Chinese warships off its coast.
Ramaphosa replied that the story of the ship “is being examined and over time we will be able to talk about it”, adding that an investigation will be opened on the matter. Already in January, the opposition Democratic Alliance party had raised the issue of a Russian ship that had called at Simon’s Town, asking the government for clarification, which had replied only that it was collecting information on the case. South African Defense Minister Thandi Modise had also said that the ship probably contained “an old order” of ammunition, which however had to be unloaded and not loaded at Simon’s Town.
