Defence minister Thandi Modise said SA benefited more from its 10-day naval exercise with Russia and China than Russia did due to the SA Navy’s exposure to the latest technologies.
She was answering questions in parliament on Wednesday.
SA hosted a 10-day Mosi II exercise with China and Russia in late February, which coincided with the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The exercise led to condemnation from opposition ranks and diplomats warning that such a move could destabilise the country’s relations with the US and EU, SA’s biggest trading partners.
The ANC has had close ties with Russia dating back to the apartheid era.
Modise said China provided three vessels and Russia one. She said the exercise followed a similar naval exercise between the three countries that took place in 2019.
“It benefited us in SA more than those who brought their vessels here. We must also say to ourselves, who benefited from this exercise? It is the SA National Defence Force because through the budget cuts over the years ... we’ve not been able to update our technologies. When these exercises take place, we are able to expose the members of the National Defence Force to the latest technologies.”
Russia’s Zircon tanker was equipped with the latest hypersonic cruise missile.
“I also want to confirm there were no hypersonic missiles tested or fired, because that was not the intention of the exercise.”
She also suggested that naval exercises were not out of the ordinary, saying SA had held some with the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil and the US.
SA continued to call for peace between Russia and Ukraine, she said.
DA defence spokesperson Kobus Marais said that SA did not benefit due to its limited naval capacity.
“We have no capabilities that could have benefited from the Russian presence. The international consequences were not properly considered. The only logical purpose seems to be a propaganda platform for Russia’s war against Ukrainian civilian targets. This will damage access to our most important trade and investment opportunities and exacerbate our economic hardship,” he said in parliament.
Modise disagreed, saying the exercise was “not futile”.
“We insist we will have a voice. We will honour our responsibility and our bilateral relations ... with the US, with the UK, with Germany, with everybody else, but we’ll be able to say ... we are sovereign.
“We are saying that we cannot continue to be used as Africans. We are a sovereign state.”
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