SOCHI RUSSIA - OCTOBER,23 (RUSSIA OUT) Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) greets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (L) during the welcoming ceremony at the Russia-Africa Summit in Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, October 23, 2019. Leaders of African countries have gathered in Sochi for two-days summit. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

Premium RW Johnson: Ramaphosa’s knee-jerk African Peace mission to nowhere

Inimitable expert RW Johnson opines on President Ramaphosa and his African colleagues on their ill-considered mission to Ukraine and Russia.

Published on:

22 May 2023, 10:49 am

By RW Johnson

President Ramaphosa has now headed off with his African colleagues on their ill-considered mission to Ukraine and Russia. It is impossible to find anyone outside a few ANC loyalists in South Africa who takes this mission seriously. Let us spell out the reasons why this is so.

Although Ramaphosa has from time to time talked of South Africa offering its good offices to help mediate the Russia-Ukraine war, no one has hitherto treated this idea seriously.The basic problem is that no African state has any leverage over either Russia or Ukraine. And without the ability to twist arms, mediation is pretty much impossible. China has decisive leverage over Russia, America and Nato have leverage over Ukraine. True, President Erdogan was able to get Putin to allow Ukraine to make grain shipments – but Turkey controls the Bosphorus, the entrance to the Black Sea, which means that any Russian leader has to listen to Turkey.

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