Johannesburg - Newly formed political party Rise Mzansi has described President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent peace mission to Ukraine and Russia as an “unmitigated disaster”, saying it would not yield positive results for the warring countries.
On Monday, the party released a statement through its spokesperson, Mabine Seabe, who said the trip had put the country’s foreign diplomacy at great risk.
“It was pricey, disorganised, and an ill-informed public relations exercise that will yield nothing for South Africa and its 60 million people,” Seabe said.
He said it was clear that the visit to the two countries was a monumental flop, as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were adamant that many of the African delegation’s efforts were misguided.
“According to the ‘Lusaka Times’, President Vladimir Putin of Russia presented a list of reasons why he believed many of the proposals put forward by the African leaders were misguided.
“Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, also told the delegation that their intervention was ill-timed as Ukraine had just begun its counter-offensive to expel the Russian army. Wartime peace negotiations usually succeed when both sides no longer see a path to military victory. This is clearly not the case here, as both Ukraine and Russia remain determined to fight,” Seabe said.
The party said the trip lacked strong support from China and the US, which were supporting Russia and Ukraine, respectively.
“Successful peace efforts usually have the support of countries that support either of the two warring countries or have the strongest leverage. In this case, the peace mission needed the strong support of the United States (US) and China, both of whom have the ear of Ukraine and Russia, respectively.
“South Africa is currently involved in a diplomatic disagreement with the US, so clearly its support was not secured. There was also no word from the Chinese foreign ministry, although both will diplomatically say polite things if asked to comment by the media,” he said.
However, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said that while it was unfortunate that the plane carrying presidential security personnel and journalists was grounded in Poland, it had no bearing on the success of the African Peace Mission.
The Polish government had grounded the SAA charter aircraft that was carrying at least 120 people at Warsaw airport. Polish officials refused to let the team and the weapons off the plane.
Magwenya said that even with the incident in mind, Ramaphosa’s security was not compromised.
“That’s not for me to say whether we needed that or not; all I am telling you, as an assurance, is that at no point did we experience any significant threat to the life of the president.
“Now, security managers may, for their own reasons best known to them from a security point of view, sort of augment their deployment on the ground; that’s for them to respond to, not for me.
“The president, at all times, was safe, and at all times, there was no threat to his life or that of his delegation; equally, that applies to other heads of state that were there,” Magwenya told the SABC.
The Star