JOHANNESBURG â South African authorities are examining evidence that suggests a consignment of arms was illegally loaded on a Russian vessel docked at a South African naval base in December by a private company, three people familiar with an internal probe by Cyril Ramaphosa's government told Semafor Africa.
Ramaphosa ordered the investigation after the United States ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, accused Pretoria of trading arms with Russia. South Africa's government initially criticized the ambassador for making the allegation publicly instead of using established diplomatic channels. It has since tried to contain the fallout from the diplomatic spat which has roiled financial markets and pushed the rand to lows against the dollar.
But two senior civil servants and a business leader told Semafor Africa an ongoing internal government investigation threw up leads suggesting a private company carried out an illegal arms trade. They are examining evidence that the vessel, Lady R, docked at a naval base near Cape Town and off-loaded arms believed to be from Russia, before collecting a cache of "small arms". The vessel off-loaded more arms than it picked up, the people said.
In a separate development, unconnected to the government probe, Ramaphosa on May 11 said a retired judge would be appointed to run an official inquiry into the allegations made by Brigety. However, he is yet to name anyone.
aeneasaquinas on May 24th, 2023 at 02:31 UTC »
The government anger of the accusations levied by the US from SA is rather ironic, given it seems the US is more aware of South African shipments than their own government. Although that ire from the SA government served a clear purpose - evident from this very forum when discussing it. So many commenters claiming the US statement was not only wrong, but shameful and horrible in any diplomatic sense. Perhaps that line of reasoning makes more sense from a Russian point of view, but especially after this relevation, is rather funny.
Downloading_Bungee on May 23rd, 2023 at 23:32 UTC »
Given how the situation in SA is at the moment, Denel Land Systems probably needs all the money it can get.
rogerram1 on May 23rd, 2023 at 14:47 UTC »
South African authorities are examining evidence that suggests a consignment of arms was illegally loaded on a Russian vessel docked at a South African naval base in December by a private company, three people familiar with an internal probe by Cyril Ramaphosa's government