President Cyril Ramaphosa will this week join 42 other African heads of state in St Petersburg for the Russia-Africa summit, at which Moscow is expected to continue its push to increase its influence in Africa amid its year-long conflict with Ukraine.
The war between Moscow and Kyiv and the termination of the Black Sea grain deal is expected to loom large over the summit considering that African states have had to contend with a steep rise in food and oil prices since the outbreak of the conflict. The termination of the grain deal, due to Russia’s withdrawal in July, is expected to worsen the rise in food prices on the continent.
SA, which has consistently reiterated that it is nonaligned in the conflict, has previously expressed its disappointment with Russia’s withdrawal. Pretoria, which recently announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the Brics summit in Johannesburg in August, is expected to use this week’s meetings in St Petersburg to call for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
On Monday, Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s eight VIP security personnel are expected to make their first court appearance after handing themselves over to the police on Sunday. The eight were suspended from duty earlier in July after a video depicting members of the VIP unit assaulting members of the public on the N1 highway in Johannesburg went viral.
Mashatile’s office confirmed that the deputy president was not in the vehicle at the time of the incident.
“The blue light bullies must now be treated like all other violent criminals following this violent and unprovoked attack,” the DA’s spokesperson on police, Andrew Whitfield, said in a statement.
Mashtile is expected to officiate at the Tuesday launch of the SA National Human Development Report for 2022, the fourth produced by the UN for SA. This year it focuses on youth unemployment and the risks it poses for socioeconomic development.
The ANC will hold its two-day local government summit in Johannesburg from Monday. It is expected to look at ways to fix local governance in SA. Municipalities have been identified as a vulnerable sector in terms of corruption, prompting the government to establish a dedicated local government anticorruption forum with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) as chair. Of the 257 municipalities in the country, 123 have cases of corruption being investigated by the Hawks.
This week, SA’s third-largest political party, the EFF, will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary in Johannesburg. The celebrations include a gala dinner on Thursday, where the cost of sitting at the same table as party leader Julius Malema is R1m. There will be a breakfast with diplomats stationed in SA on Friday, followed by the official anniversary celebrations on Saturday.
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