LETTER: SA’s stance is the correct one

Sydney Kaye made various factual errors in his letter, the first a clear misrepresentation of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s explanation for why SA opted to abstain from the Ukraine vote in the UN General Assembly (“Backing Russia in interests of ANC”, March 7).             

This was not the first time SA abstained in a General Assembly vote involving Russia. In 2014 SA abstained as well, which shows consistency in the government’s principles. The basic tenet of SA’s foreign policy in times of conflict is dialogue.

Kaye says there is only one wrong side. Unfortunately, one cannot come to that conclusion sans dialogue, hence SA’s stance. Also, one needs to ask if Russia’s qualm is the expansion of Nato, isn’t there some legitimacy to their problem? Why do we still need Nato anyway, in peacetime?

Am I justifying the Ukraine invasion? Absolutely not, I am merely stating that SA’s stance is the correct one — we should never cower from our principles. As former president Nelson Mandela said, no one should assume that their enemies are our enemies.

In maintaining neutrality we remain objective and can claim authority to speak to both sides of the conflict.

Phumudzo Makhado, Johannesburg

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.