As of April 2, a delegation of several ranking members of South Africa’s ruling ANC party was on a four-day “working visit” to Russia at the invitation of the United Russia Party (Putin’s party), to discuss the “recalibration of the global order to reverse the consequences of neo-colonialism and the previously prevailing unipolar world.”
The visit comes against the background of South Africa’s Minister of International Relations, Naledi Pandor, stating a month ago that Brazil, India, China and South Africa should step forward to play “a leading role” in bringing about a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine, she told India’s WION TV on March 5, after attending the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in New Delhi:
“We are looking forward to India, Brazil, South Africa and China playing a leading role in drawing the parties together, because one of our members is Russia, as BRICS. And we think that four leaders actually have a very vital role that they could play in becoming a convening group to draw the parties together.” She pointed to the example of the ANC making peace in the 1990s with “our enemies, who killed and arrested our fathers and mothers, who denied us educational opportunities and denied us basic human rights.”
South Africa maintains a non-aligned stance on the war, while also defending South Africa’s friendship with Russia.
The NC visit will inevitably have value for the upcoming BRICS summit in South Africa in August with President Ramaphosa in the chair. It is likely that the ICC’s March 18 arrest warrant against President Putin—ordering his arrest if he travels to South Africa for the BRICS summit—is also a subject for consultation between the two parties.
In the meantime, the “recalibration” of the world order continues apace. The influential South African Communist Party, embedded in the ANC, has now called for South Africa to cancel its membership in the ICC, and the South African government has just granted permission for Iranian warships to dock at the Port of Cape Town, despite loud clucking noises emanating from the U.S. embassy in Pretoria.