IN PICS | Durbanites protest against Russian and Chinese war games

Dozens of Durban residents gathered in Umhlanga on Saturday to protest against the government’s decision to host the Russian Federation and China People's Liberation Army Navy to participate in war games off the coast at Richards Bay. 

The naval exercise not only falls on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022, it also falls on the day commemorating the sinking of the troopship SS Mendi on February 21 1917, during World War I. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of South Africa's armed forces, will on Tuesday officiate Armed Forces Day in Richards Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

A Russian warship armed with one of Moscow’s most powerful weapons was redirected from the port in Durban to Richards Bay ahead of the event. 

Katya Fedkina, 41, a representative of the Ukrainian Association of South Africa in Durban, said their protest on Saturday was to oppose the war games in their entirety. 

“These war games signify the end of South Africa’s ‘neutrality’ in what is essentially unprovoked and unjust military aggression in violation of the UN Charter with global implications,” she said.

As a Ukrainian citizen who has lived in South Africa for the past 17 years, she felt the money spent on hosting the spectacle could have been put to better use. 

“In a country reeling from devastating floods and ongoing blackouts, you would think the resources being put into hosting these war games could be used elsewhere.

“We call upon the government to call off the naval exercise, to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to use military resources allocated for this exercise for disaster relief desperately needed as a result of the recent floods.”

Fedkina said there were concerns around the use of nuclear weapons. 

“South Africa has no nuclear weapons. We have the moral high ground as being the only country in history to voluntarily dismantle nuclear weapons and sign the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. South Africa further signed and ratified the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on February 25 2019.

“Likewise, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons during the fall of the Soviet Union, handing them to Russia in return for protection in the case of violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. Ironically, Russia has violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and is threatening the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict against Ukraine.

“Our concern is the visiting vessels may be armed with nuclear weapons. The government must ensure no nuclear weapons are brought into South African waters.”

Fedkina said together with civil society made up of activists from the peace, environmental, human rights and faith sectors, they would continue with protests around South Africa during the war games. 

“War and large-scale military exercises have a severe impact on our environment, which is already under threat of human-induced climate and ecological breakdown. Just north of Richards Bay is the Unesco-listed world heritage site of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park with its marine protected areas stretching from Cape St Lucia to the Mozambique border.”

A protest is planned for outside the Russian Embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday and a march to the Cape Town City Hall on Friday.

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