With our correspondent in Johannesburg, Roman song
To those who didn’t believe him, the ambassador said, “I would bet my life that this claim was correct”: According to Reuben Brigety, “arms and ammunition were loaded” on board a Russian freighter moored near Cape Town Early December, “before it sails back to Russia”… well in full conflict with Ukraine. Pretoria would have loaded guns on the Lady R, a Russian boat sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on suspicion of importing and exporting military equipment.
However, Guy Martin, a South African defense journalist interviewed by RFI, does not believe the American thesis. According to him, the South African army had nothing to offer the Russians in terms of materials.
For its part, the presidency announced in a press release that an “independent investigation” would be launched to find out whether arms were actually delivered. A “retired judge” is even appointed to shed light on this story.
In this press release, the South African Presidency does not deny the ambassador’s revelations and even says that the ambassador “provides no evidence”: it is therefore word for word and a curious lightness given the seriousness of the allegations.
►Also read: South Africa: Jacob Zuma’s daughter identified as cog in Russian propaganda