ANC treasurer general Gwen Ramokgopa. (Felix Dlangamandla/Gallo Images)
ANC treasurer general Gwen Ramokgopa says the assertion by US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety that the ruling party had given him the cold shoulder was “incorrect”.
Ramokgopa told the Mail & Guardian in an interview that ANC officials were shocked by Brigety’s claims of hostile relations during a sitdown interview with journalists on Thursday.
“We are really shocked. I must say that I meet the corporate sector, I meet ambassadors quite regularly,” Ramokgopa said. “It’s quite an extensive programme that I have and I have also engaged with cooperate from the States and I have engaged with the lady responsible for Agoa (African Growth and Opportunities Act) in Africa when she visited South Africa.”
The US ambassador made explosive allegations against South Africa, including that the country had recently sold ammunition to Russia. His claims, if correct, fly in the face of South Africa’s often stated “non-aligned stance” on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Brigety said the weapons were loaded onto the US-sanctioned Russian cargo vessel known as Lady R, when it docked at the Simon’s Town naval base between 6 and 8 December last year. He said Washington was “confident” that weapons and ammunition were loaded onto the Lady R before it returned to Russia.
Pretoria has denied the claims by the US and President Cyril Ramaphosa has established an inquiry.
Brigety said Washington had taken offence at ANC resolutions adopted during its December elective conference which he said attributed the Russia-Ukraine war to the expansion of Nato, an intergovernmental military alliance between European and North American countries.
He said since taking up his post in August 2022, he had “repeatedly” tried to open dialogue with the ANC, but the governing party had only recently responded to the US’s repeated enquiries.
Washington “cannot understand” the hostility from the ANC towards the US “given the openness and unprecedented generosity we provide South Africa to our market, which we have done for nearly a quarter of a century”.
Ramokgopa pushed back against Brigety’s comments, saying that she had met him personally on at least three occasions. She said the US ambassador had been “very frank to raise his concerns about some of the resolutions that the ANC has taken” during these meetings.
Ramokgopa added that Brigety had communicated that to ANC officials on separate occasions and the party had agreed to bilateral discussions with the US.
“What we are also saying is that in foreign relations, international relations, context is always important and we have promised that, under the leadership of the [ANC] secretary general’s office which the international relations is coordinated by the deputy secretary general [Nomvula Mokonyane], we will certainly set up bilaterals on his concerns,” she said.
“It is not correct that whilst we are under discussions he keeps on raising this matter as if we are not responsive to the concerns that he is raising.”
Ramokgopa said the ANC wanted to assure Washington that the party had taken on board Brigerty’s concerns and that “indeed, context is always important and we will be able to clarify the context of our stance but we are working towards a peaceful resolution of any conflicts in the world”.
She told the M&G that the ANC would not deviate from its non-alliance stance.
“The ANC cannot take a side because both Ukraine and Russia were there to support us in our struggle for liberation under the USSR framework. We are perturbed that war broke out and we would like all forces and interested parties to really give peace a chance, both Ukraine, Russia and all other international communities. Let us all work for a peaceful resolution of all disputes,” Ramokgopa said.
She reiterated that it was “incorrect” that Brigety had only recently received correspondence from the ANC stressing that the governing party was committed to bilaterals with the US.
“We trust that he will be patient and that we will handle that but that is no reason to fuel mistrust and also to strain diplomatic relations. We have said America is one of our important trading partners and that is why the president also sent a team to the US recently. We are positive that we will find one another,” she said.
Ramaphosa recently sent a delegation, led by his security adviser Sydney Mufamadi, to Washington to allay the US’s fears that the country was quietly siding with Russia in the war.
This came after an arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court for Russian president Vladimir Putin on charges of abducting Ukrainian children.
South Africa is preparing for the Brics summit in August. The warrant has caused a diplomatic crisis for Ramaphosa’s government as South Africa is a signatory of the Rome Statute and would be legally obliged to arrest Putin should he land in the country.