ActionSA has met with Ukrainian ambassador to South Africa Liubov Abravitova to convey support and to express the party’s strong opposition to Russia’s invasion of its east European neighbour.
The war in Ukraine has been going on since February 24, and Russian soldiers have been slowly making inroads into the country’s main cities, leaving behind a trail of destruction to property and deaths of innocent civilians.
Millions have since fled to neighbouring countries such as Poland and Hungary, and those who chose to stay behind are battling starvation.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said South Africa’s refusal to denounce the war placed the southern African nation on the wrong side of history.
“Our blinding and unending allegiance to countries that the ANC government deems to have been our anti-apartheid struggle allies cannot be allowed to continue unchallenged,” said Mashaba in a statement on Thursday, adding that South Africans ought to be outraged as the Russian invasion of Ukraine directly impacts the country’s national and geopolitical security.
“Having come out of apartheid just over 27 years ago, South Africans should not be desensitised just because the Russian invasion of Ukraine is taking place far from our shores.”
He also stressed the impact of the invasion on the local economy, noting that global agricultural products, food, and fuel prices keep spiraling out of control and “putting even more pressure on the poor who are already buckling under the overwhelming oppression that comes with extreme poverty, and who are struggling following the economic blow we have all suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Cyril Ramaphosa’s government, whose delusional idea that abstaining demonstrates a strong stand on some principle, cannot deny that South Africa’s recent performance on the global stage under his party’s rudderless leadership has fallen severely short of the ambitions identified at the dawn of our democracy.”
The South African government, said Mashaba, has drifted from the principles scripted in the country’s constitution since the end of Thabo Mbeki’s tenure as president and his “quiet” diplomacy on Zimbabwe.
Although Russia is not an enemy, Mashaba believes President Vladimir Putin’s attack on the Ukrainian people must be perceived as “nothing less than tyrannical and reminiscent of [Germany dictator Adolf] Hitler’s invasion of Poland, a globally devastating moment in history that led to the eruption of the Second World War”.
Mashaba reiterated his party’s stance in the country’s post-apartheid foreign policy, affirming that ActionSA believes “human rights should be the core concern of international relations and consideration of justice and respect for international law”.
He added that his party’s belief compels it to show support to the people of Ukraine to combat the possibility of an international catastrophe that is war.
“The ANC government’s position does not reflect the views of all South Africans.”
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