Durban — ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has come out strongly against those who are criticising President Cyril Ramaphosa’s intervention in the Russia-Ukraine war, labelling the detractors as “ignorants” who do not understand the conflict’s impact on the South African economy.
Fikile Mbalula was addressing ANC members at the party’s state bank workshop in Durban at the weekend. This was while Ramaphosa and other leaders of various African states were on a special peace mission, which started with meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“I have never seen such ignorance in the age of time we are living in,” said Mbalula.
The tour ended with the African leaders meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the weekend.
Mbalula also denounced allegations which were started by US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety – that South Africa has provided arms to Russia – saying that the country was not fighting a proxy war.
Mbalula said those who are criticising Ramaphosa for intervening in the war and also accusing the country of providing weapons were trying to bully the country, something which he equated to “imperialism or neo-colonialism”.
“I see people who are not informed of what is happening in the world, saying ‘why do you go to Ukraine’?
“(They say) ‘why do you bother about that’, but as the result of the cost of living here in South Africa, you are affected and you don’t know that you are affected,” he said.
Some Twitter users have expressed unhappiness about Ramaphosa and his counterparts going to solve problems in East Europe, leaving South Africa facing many crises and Africa facing its own conflicts.
“We don’t articulate our view and put it across in terms of what we believe and what we stand for. “We have allowed Twitter to define what is a political debate in less than 140 characters to tell us how we must think, swearing at each other,” he said.
Mbalula said such ignorance about the impact of the war was caused by a lack of debate with the ANC.
“We have abandoned our role, we don’t debate and inform ourselves and agree to disagree about what is happening in Ukraine.”
DA leader John Steenhuisen on Saturday released a statement going as far as demanding that the Presidency disclose the expenses of what he called Ramaphosa’s “failed diplomatic PR stunt” which “disgraced South Africa on the global stage”.
“I will be writing to the auditor-general requesting that the cost of this peacekeeping trip be declared as fruitless and wasteful expenditure, given the fact that due diligence was not carried out on the part of the South African state,” read Steenhuisen’s statement.
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