Presidency: Talks of sanctions against SA 'reckless'
Spokesperson in the Presidency, Vincent Magwenya, has slammed talks of sanctions against South Africa as ‘reckless’ and undermining the country's sovereignty.
Magwenya briefed the media at the Union Building on Monday, where he was asked if South African's non-aligned stance on the Russia-Ukraine issue was due to the fear of sanctions.
The briefing comes just a week after Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago sounded the alarm on the economic consequences to SA should it face censure due to its stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
South Africa has adopted a ‘non-aligned’ stance toward the Russia/Ukraine war and has on various occasions chose to abstain during a vote at the United Nations.
However, the country’s neutrality was questioned last month when US Ambassador Rueben Brigety claimed that South Africa had supplied arms to Russia.
Magwenya said there was no evidence that South Africa could face any sanctions.
“We are a little bit surprised at this talk of sanctions, which we regard as reckless and as very damaging to our already ailing and struggling economy. We find this talk of sanctions as being purely alarmist and we find it to be quite undermining to South Africa’s sovereignty and the stability of our economy.
There is no evidence whatsoever to point to any emergence of sanctions from any country or even the United Nations Security Council, which is the only authority to institute global sanctions.
“There is no such talk. We’ve had, as a government, several bilateral discussions with the US government and there has been no suggestion that the US will consider applying sanctions to South Africa," said Magwenya.
He added that South Africa has not participated in arming any of the parties that are involved in that conflict.
"On the contrary, South Africa has taken it upon itself to mobilise support and to mobilise engagement that will result in a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
“South Africa from the onset has been consistent to call for peace and to call for the parties involved in the conflict to sit down at the negotiation table. President Ramaphosa has reportedly stated that there is no conflict that will end with a winner or a loser, and that only a peaceful negotiation and resolution will see peace in that region.
“So, it is kind of difficult to continue entertaining speculation around sanction which we find to be rather reckless, and we find to be very undermining to efforts that are underway to re-build our economy," added Magwenya.
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