Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to deepen ties with South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa, the Kremlin said Friday, after the United States accused Pretoria of secretly shipping arms to Russia.
The two “expressed their intentions to further intensify mutually beneficial ties in various fields,” the Kremlin said in a statement following a call between the two leaders.
US ambassador Reuben Brigety on Thursday said Washington was confident weapons and ammunition had been laden onto a Russian freighter that docked at a Cape Town naval base.
The explosive remarks drew an angry response from President Cyril Ramaphosa, who did not deny the charge but said a retired judge would lead an investigation into the matter.
The announcement of a probe was welcomed by the United States but met with a mix of ridicule and bewilderment at home, with many questioning how the government could not have known what had happened.
“It perhaps points to a South African president who simply is unaware of what is happening effectively under his nose,” political and economic analyst Daniel Silke told AFP.
The emerging picture was of “information disarray” within the government, he said.
The Lady R, a cargo vessel under western sanctions flying a Russian flag, docked at South Africa’s largest naval base in December, officially to offload an old order of ammunition.
But ambassador Brigety said intelligence showed weaponry was loaded onto the vessel before it headed back to Russia.
The deadline for the latest investigation has not been revealed, and there has been no immediate announcement as to who will lead it.
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, a minister in the president’s office, told local media on Friday that South Africa “cannot be bullied by the US” and would follow a “time frame that is suitable for us”.
If confirmed, the shipment would mark a break from South Africa’s professed neutrality over the conflict in Ukraine.
The foreign ministry on Friday said there was no record of any approved arms sales to Russia during the period in question but the probe would shed light on the case.
President Putin and President Ramaphosa
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