SA not bothered by Western pressure over Russian war - Mokonyane
ANC Deputy Secretary General, Nomvula Mokonyane, says the party is not bothered by Western countries and their criticism of the position of the South African government as it relates to Russia's war in Ukraine.
Mokonyane made the remarks whilst briefing the media on the ANC’s state readiness for the BRICS political parties dialogue on Monday.
This comes a week before the BRICS Dialogue with political parties which is to be held in the country next week.
BRICS politics are building up in the run-up to next month's Summit and the international row over the warrant issued for the arrest of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa would be expected to arrest Putin if he sets foot in the country.
There had been speculation that Pretoria was considering moving the talks to China to avoid being put in the position of having to arrest Putin.
The arrest warrant is a diplomatic dilemma for Pretoria, which has been close to the Kremlin since the anti-apartheid struggle years.
South Africa has not condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying it is impartial and prefers dialogue.
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Mokonyane says the country remains non-aligned.
"Historically we have remained nonaligned not only because of any relationship that we hold with Russia today but because of our own historical perspective around the issues of a unipolar world against nations and our own experience of exploitation and colonialism as well as the arrogancy of those who assume that if you say you are non-aligned it means we have taken sides,” she says.
"We have not taken sides and hence you can see through the actions of our government, all parties have been listened too and all parties have been given the same observations that we are making and what we believe can be a solution to what is happening in the world and therefore we are not faced by being accused of being nonaligned as it is the correct decision made by the party and our government.”
"We have a resolution to remain in the ICC but review our participation, there are processes that are unfolding there without undermining such bodies," adds Mokonyane.
She notes that the dialogue meeting is not about Putin but about the countries meeting.
"It is not about paving a way but it's about dealing with issues of the geopolitical development in the world as well as the issues of militarism and the transformation of the institutions,” she says.
"It should not be something that is only attributed to whether if President Putin is coming through or not as that will be also unfair to the African National Congress."
On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed that next month's BRICS summit will not be a virtual one but will be held in person.
"We are going to have a physical BRICS summit, all of us are committed to having a summit where we will be able to eyeball each other, we have not held a physical summit for... almost three years. It's not going to be virtual," he stressed.
