America accuses South Africa of sending arms to Russia

EVER SINCE Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, South Africa has claimed to be “non-aligned” and “neutral”. The West has long questioned the wisdom of that stance. Now America is questioning its veracity. On May 11th Reuben Brigety, America’s ambassador to South Africa, accused the country of supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia in a clandestine naval operation in December 2022. “The arming of Russia by South Africa…is fundamentally unacceptable…[and a] deviation from South Africa’s policy of non-alignment,” said Mr Brigety.The accusations relate to a strange series of events involving , a Russian merchant ship subject to American sanctions. In November, American officials discovered that it was heading for South African waters. A few weeks later it docked in Simon’s Town, a naval base outside Cape Town close to penguin-strewn beaches; by now, though, it had turned off its transponder. Eyewitnesses said they saw goods being offloaded, and diplomatic sources suspected that did not leave empty-handed. Mr Brigety stated: “We are confident that weapons were loaded on to that vessel. And I would bet my life on the accuracy of that assertion.”