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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a judge to oversee an inquiry into allegations that the country supplied arms to Russia. It was alleged that supplies were made secretly on a ship that docked at a naval base last December
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a judge to oversee an inquiry into allegations that the country supplied arms to Russia. It was alleged that supplies were made secretly on a ship that docked at a naval base last December.
The allegations were made this month by the United States ambassador to South Africa. He said he was certain that weapons and ammunition were loaded onto the Russian-flagged cargo ship Lady R when it docked at the Simon’s Town naval base near Cape Town late last year. He said that the U.S. had the intelligence to sustain the allegation. The Lady R container-carrying ship is under U.S. sanctions for being tied to a company that has transported weapons to aid the Russian war effort in Ukraine.
South Africa has denied there was any government-sanctioned deal to provide weapons to Russia. It hasn’t been categorically ruled out that the government was involved in that deal. The country’s stand is that an unofficial transaction would have taken place involving another entity.
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Judge P.M.D. Mojapelo, a former Supreme Court of Appeal judge, was appointed chairman of a three-member panel to investigate the incident, which will complete the investigations in six weeks’ time. South Africa could be in breach of international law and its own laws regarding weapons sales, upon finding arms to Moscow were meant for the war in Ukraine. The incident has strained relations between the U.S. and South Africa
