As both the DA and Business Day’s Thanda Maeko have reliably reported, the terms on which the presidential panel appointed to investigate the Lady R saga have not been made public, and an edited version of its report is all President Cyril Ramaphosa has released (“Ramaphosa says SA vindicated in US accusation on Russian weapons”, September 3).
In fact, the wording of Maeko’s report, when she says the panel “was tasked with establishing who was aware of the cargo ship’s arrival; whether cargo was loaded or offloaded...” indicates to me that Ramaphosa was looking for the whistle-blower, rather than seeking to uncover the truth. The president’s claim that SA has been “vindicated” is nonsense.
The Financial Mail’s Justice Malala also wrote nonsense in his column (“Why the US ambassador must quit”, September 5). All that we as SA citizens have received from our government is a summary of the report of a commission Ramaphosa himself appointed.
All the circumstances lead me, and any reasonable person, to believe that armament supplies of some sort were in fact shipped to Russia on the Lady R. Ramaphosa’s pretence that SA is neutral in the war Russia has waged against Ukraine is false.
The ANC is supporting a war waged by a dictatorship against a country that is an innocent victim of that war. The party is a disgrace. We need a new government.
John Price
Via email
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