SA Minister defends Pretoria’s African diplomacy

International Relations & Co-operation Minister Ronald Lamola has defended the government’s global diplomatic strategy, saying that President Cyril Ramaphosa has not focused on conflicts on other continents at the expense of peacekeeping and good governance efforts in Africa. The Daily Maverick reports that he insisted that the government was deeply engaged in efforts to resolve African crises – but also acknowledged that Pretoria sometimes dealt with such African issues through regional organisations rather than directly. ‘We remain committed to the dialogue for democracy in eSwatini, and we have played our role through the SADC for all the parties to find each other and to continue with that dialogue,’ he said. He said that SA had shown its commitment to African peace by deploying soldiers to eastern DRC as part of a SADC intervention force to try to stabilise the area. ‘And we believe in the political solution that is coming through the Rwanda process led by President Lourenco,’ he added, referring to the continuing peace talks between DRC and Rwanda led by Angolan President João Lourenco. The DRC Government has accused Rwanda of providing military support to the M23 rebels causing mayhem in eastern DRC.

Lamola also noted that Ramaphosa over the past seven months had visited Uganda, Angola and Rwanda. ‘And if you check, we have never visited Palestine. The President has never been – he has been to all these African countries in this period with a clear aim of finding a solution, including in Mozambique,’ he said. DM notes that Lamola also disclosed there had been no breakthrough in his recent meeting with his Equatorial Guinean counterpart Simeon Oyono Esono Angue on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. At the time, Lamola said he had mentioned to Angue ‘the importance of both governments considering the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions and a Formal Opinion calling for the release of two South African nationals as both countries are signatories to various international human rights instruments and conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. He was referring to Equatorial Guinea’s detention since February 2023 of South African nationals Frik Potgieter and Peter Huxham on what most observers believe are trumped-up drug charges.