‘No legal obligation’ to bar Russian tycoon Alexey Mordashov’s yacht from entering local waters, says presidency

As long as Russian tycoon Alexey Mordashov abides by South Africa’s immigration laws, no one has the right to prevent him from sailing his 141-metre luxury yacht into our local waters.

This is according to presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, who told the media on Tuesday that SA’s obligations with respect to sanctions relate only to those specifically adopted by the UN.

“Currently there are no UN imposed sanctions on the particular individual and therefore South Africa has no legal obligation to abide by the sanctions that the US and the EU have decided to impose within specific jurisdictions.

“For as long as individuals abide by our immigration laws, we have no reason to prevent entry into South Africa,” he said.

Magwenya was responding to a TimesLIVE report which said that Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on Monday called on the government not to allow a superyacht, reportedly owned by a Russian oligarch, to enter the city’s port.

International and local media reports have indicated that the Nord, worth about R9bn, had ended a controversial stopover in Hong Kong and set sail for Cape Town.

Mordashov is reported to own the 141-metre yacht, which has two helipads and was sanctioned by the EU, the UK and US after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reported Bloomberg.

“I have written to the minister of international relations and co-operation Naledi Pandor requesting her intervention to block the entry of a vessel — owned and sailed by Alexey Mordashov and bound for Cape Town — into the republic. I have also requested that Mordashov not be allowed to enter the country,” said Hill-Lewis.

Mordashov has significant business interests in Russia, in the steel, banking and media industries. A spokesperson said he had been in Moscow since the yacht arrived in Hong Kong.

Hill-Lewis said the international community recognised the invasion of Ukraine as illegal and there was evidence of war crimes committed against its people.

“The founding provisions of our constitution state our nation’s commitment to human dignity and the advancement of human rights and freedoms. To welcome an accomplice to state terrorism against innocent people to our shores as a guest would be a violation of these values.

"If Mordashov is allowed to dock and enter, I believe this is something which we will come not only to feel ashamed of as a matter of our own morality but it will also lower our reputation and standing among the peace-loving nations of the world.”

Government had a duty to nurture the country’s standing in the international community and uphold its obligations to other nations. So far the country’s foreign policy towards the invasion of Ukraine was “shameful”.

“I call on minister Pandor, therefore, to bar Mordashov’s docking in Cape Town and his entry into the republic.”

TimesLIVE

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