AU chair to meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin over Ukraine war, says Ramaphosa

19 May 2022 - 23:00
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President Cyril Rampahosa told Black Business Council leaders that AU chair Macky Sall will meet Russian President Vladrmir Putin to discuss the devastating impact the war in Ukraine is having on Africa. File photo.
President Cyril Rampahosa told Black Business Council leaders that AU chair Macky Sall will meet Russian President Vladrmir Putin to discuss the devastating impact the war in Ukraine is having on Africa. File photo.
Image: GCIS.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday evening revealed African Union (AU) chair Macky Sall will visit Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the devastating impact of the conflict in Ukraine.

“We realised that [the Ukraine-Russia conflict] it is going to have an impact on our own continent as well. It was then decided the chair of our union should go on invitation to Russia to meet with the president to have a discussion,” said Ramaphosa.

He was addressing the annual Black Business Council (BBC) summit dinner at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Gauteng.

The two-day summit brought together government, civil society and business leaders to deliberate on socio-economic opportunities and challenges facing the country.

Ramaphosa told guests, who included ambassadors from Venezuela, Cuba and Russia and UDM leader Bantu Holomisa, that the conflict in Ukraine, which started in February, has added to the challenges driving up fuel and food prices and intensifying geopolitical tensions. The effects were still being felt today, he said.

“Rising prices and the cost of living have seen the Central Bank respond by raising the cost of money and debt. This will particularly have a damaging impact on African and developing countries, which are most vulnerable to food and energy insecurity,” he said.

Ramaphosa, who has been engaging world leaders on the matter, told delegates the AU bureau sat recently and discussed the conflict in Ukraine. 

He said the circumstances the world is confronted with will have lasting consequences for the organisations of work, patterns of trade, investment flows and development aspirations of countries in the continent and global south.

On the local front, Ramaphosa said: “There are times when I think, as South Africans, we do not fully understand the economy of our country, how it functions and its history, how it came to be the type of economy it is. Sometimes I get the sense we do not understand what drives this economy.”

Despite this, Ramaphosa said when he listens to the leadership of the BBC and Black Management Forum, he gets a sense there was a keen understanding of the economy.

The voice of the BBC is not just a voice of black business, he said, but was the voice of “a nation that continues to want to free itself from the bondage of discrimination and dispossession and also from poverty, unemployment, extreme inequality and a grave injustice that was visited upon our people when colonialists descended upon our country and their apartheid rulers took power and started a wholesale process of oppression and discrimination.”

Ramaphosa said the BBC and government had a shared vision of creating a “new economy” in which all South Africans can play a meaningful role and have equal opportunity and benefit.

This monumental task, he said, was being embarked upon at a time of great uncertainty in the world and global economy with the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The devastating effects of the pandemic are being worsened by the impact of climate change on our communities and economy.

 “While there are great challenges there are great opportunities. The African free trade area came into operation in the midst of the pandemic. It is the most potent instrument the continent has ever had to drive economic and social renaissance.”

Ramaphosa said this is what the continent needs to capitalise on, particularly SA, which considers itself the gateway to the continent.

“We are the industrial powerhouse of this continent, and coming into force of the Africa free trade area means we are boosted. As South Africans, our economic fortunes can be put on a much higher pedestal. It has great potential if we seize the opportunity,”

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