'We cannot be bullied by the US,' says minister in the Presidency

“South Africa cannot be bullied by the United States.”  

This was minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni's response to US government allegations that a Russian ship, Lady R, was loaded with weapons while docked at Simon's Town naval base.

In an interview with the SABC on Friday, the minister said: “The ambassador has not followed diplomatic channels in terms of dealing with issues in South Africa and this is not the first time this has happened.”  

Ntshavheni slammed US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety's “megaphone diplomacy” approach of addressing the media in Pretoria on Thursday when he said Washington had established the vessel was loaded with weapons while docked at the naval base. 

“It doesn’t work. If the US has concerns about anything in South Africa, they are allowed to raise them — but the channel they need to contact is Dirco [the department of international relations and co-operation] to say these are the issues they have problems with, because we have a relationship with the US.”

Ntshavheni said if the US has security concerns, it must go through the correct channels. 

“They have not done that. What was worrying is that the embassy once issued a terror alert, not only for the richest square mile in the African continent but at a period when there was a gay pride march scheduled.  

“If you know that on our continent we are faced with challenges of homophobia ... when you issue a terror alert based on not-ascertained information, you are saying the LGBTQI community are up for being targeted and anybody can do anything to them.” 

The US, she said, did that without communicating with the South African government.  

“They don’t gather information to the extent that we gather, and did not compare notes to see whether what they had gathered was the same as ours.

“We have co-operation on security matters, to share information, and they want to treat us as if we are one of their states. We are not. We are a sovereign and republic state and we are not going to co-govern with the ambassador of the US.”  

Ntshavheni said a decision for the department of international relations to démarche the US ambassador to South Africa and meet US secretary of state Antony Blinken is part of the diplomatic channels to address the matter.  

The minister would not comment on allegations that the South African government ignored intelligence gathered around the Lady R, saying: “We can’t speak about intelligence things. There was no ignoring of information from the US government. That is nonsensical, at best.”  

She said President Cyril Ramaphosa instituted an inquiry to be led by a retired judge to investigate the matter. 

“When you say you have these concerns, we say to you, officially, from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, we do not have record of any authorisation for South Africa selling arms to the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.” 

She mentioned Belarus because there was a parliamentary question raised last year about South Africa selling it arms.  

“We comply as a country to our own Conventional Arms Control Act, which says arms manufactured in South Africa cannot be used in wars that affect women, children, and that we are very clear on.”  

She said there was oversight over the sale of arms and if there is intelligence to prove the allegations, then it should be presented. 

“We have had interactions with them and we said we will institute an inquiry on the matter and that inquiry will clarify a number of things: Was there a violation, and what was the purpose of that ship?”  

Ntshavheni said South Africa has no sanctions against Russia. 

“It is the US which has sanctions against Russia, so when they sanction Russia, they must not drag us into their issues with Russia.  

“We don’t want to be dragged into these issues and their differences with Russia and China. We have our own independent and sovereign relationship with China, US, Russia and any other country.”

The non-aligned stance on the Russia-Ukraine war has been clarified on numerous occasions, Ntshavheni said. When South Africa engaged with the US, the government communicated that South Africa had received a consignment. This will form part of the inquiry to investigate whether South Africa was misled, she said. 

For the inquiry, South Africa needed to determine whether there was a violation committed and interrogate all the intelligence gathered around the incident. 

“We cannot be bullied by the US. We will follow the time frame that is suitable for us.

“On trade relations with the US, we continuously have negotiations at different intervals. There was a time when the US had a problem with our stand with regards to the chickens because they wanted to dump their chicken in SA and we said we had businesses that needed to be protected. 

“In the first round of discussions around the African Growth and Opportunity Act [Agoa] when we compromised, it killed our chicken industry. We had the next round of discussions and said that we are not going to compromise, we need to protect our industries because it also affects small businesses.”

Ntshavheni said Brigety must not create an impression it’s the first time South Africa and the US engaged on trade relations.  

“They have lost a trade arrangement with China around maize meal and they want us to be punished on that. If China says it wants grain from us, we are going to supply grain. Who they dump in the process has nothing to do with us.”  

This, she said, is the nature of trade where there is competition for clientele. 

“There are things the US wants from us in terms of our trade arrangements and there are things we want from them — and we are adamant that we need to continue to participate in Agoa.”

Ntshavheni said the US was not the only country targeting South Africa. She said parts of Europe were killing South Africa’s citrus industry by instituting requirements that are not objective or fair. 

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