Putin and Ramaphosa's Meeting After Midnight
"You drive things right into very early hours of the morning..."
South Africa is a fascinating destination. The province of KZN is likely the assassination capital of the world. Cape Town kills children at an impressive rate. ‘Doctors’ dismember babies to make medicine for guys with infected schlongs. Suspected thieves get burnt alive in Salem fashion. Lesbians get ‘correctively’ raped. Our riots are like scenes from ‘World War Z’.
I may one day compile that tourist brochure for my overseas readers, give people what they want which is good old fashioned mayhem. Instead, today, I’m sharing the last part in the Trilogy of Boredom, the Russia-Africa Summit 2023.
It isn’t boring at all. It’s important. But I’m posting on a Monday morning when all that anyone cares about is coffee and traffic. So I gave this page a true but clickbait title because just one more reader counts.
I cannot comment on these matters in an exciting fashion because the basic documents aren’t online. Well, they are, but the Kremlin’s website isn’t as fancy a destination as Russophobic publications such as America’s CNN and South Africa’s Daily Maverick.
Consequently, I’m following up on ‘Putin Gives Africa $23bn Debt Relief’ and ‘South Africa and Russia Sign the St Petersburg Agreement’ with a copy and paste of Cyril Ramaphosa and Vladimir Putin’s official statements regarding their meeting and the Summit.
I’ll add snippets of others too, the last one guaranteed to shock the sensibilities of my fellow Anglo-Saxons!
"Our meeting yesterday concluded rather late, at about 1.30–2 am Moscow time. But I think we worked hard and our efforts were very productive. It benefited both our bilateral relations and Russia’s relations with the African continent in general – and not least due to your efforts, Mr President, as you were actively involved in the preparations for this meeting…
We have a strong focus on expanding ties in education. For the 2023–2024 academic year, we have nearly tripled the scholarship quota for South African students, with additional 400 people to study at Russian universities.
Our countries coordinate their actions at the United Nations, the G20 and other multi-format organisations. This year South Africa holds the chairmanship of BRICS. We are interacting closely and efficiently within the association, aiming to boost the strategic partnership of its five member countries."
President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa:
“Thank you very much, President Putin, for welcoming us. Yes, we finished quite late. I did say that you are a very hard worker, you drive things right into very early hours of the morning. It is wonderful to be working with a partner like you, because I am a hard worker, too, so that is very good.
Thank you very much for hosting the Russia-Africa summit. We believe that it was most successful. It was well organised. The outcome is very good, the declaration was well-negotiated and well-crafted, and it represents the views that various countries here put forward, together with your views. I believe that we have got a declaration that can take our relationship between Africa and Russia forward.
What is particularly pleasing is that Russia conducts its relationship with Africa at a strategic level, and it conducts it with a great deal of respect and recognition of the sovereignty of African states. Russia has continued to be supportive of Africa as it did in the past, even during the days of the Soviet Union. So we are very pleased that the spirit of cooperation continues, and we appreciate very much your own disposition towards it.
When it comes to South Africa, we enjoy very good relations with Russia, at a strategic level, touching on a number of areas, and it is a multilevel relationship, as you have correctly said. At the investment level, there is quite a number of Russian companies that have invested in the South African market, as there are companies from South Africa that are also investing in the Russian market.
At the trade level, obviously, we would like to see more growth in exchanges of trade. Cooperation should now be much broader in the energy sector. Currently, South Africa is going through an energy crisis, and we could learn a lot and do a lot together with Russia on the energy side.
On the science and technology side, there is a great deal that we can learn from each other. In fact, we can learn a lot from you. We want to look at areas like space. We have a space institute in South Africa. You have advanced a great deal in space, and that is one area that we could cooperate where there can be sharing of skills.
We very much appreciate support that we received from Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your own innovation, which killed COVID-19, helped to inspire our own scientists. I remember you and me having a conversation after our scientists discovered Omicron. We spoke on the phone and you sent Russian scientists to South Africa so that we could exchange views, and I do believe that it was really impactful. So, we thank you for that.
On the education side, we continue to be grateful for the support that we get from Russia on education, and we would like more and more students to come to Russia, to come and learn across a number of disciplines. So, the support that you have given to many South Africans who have been educated in Russia is quite extensive, and we value that. So, we want to see that continuing by manyfold; not only threefold, but tenfold and twentyfold.
Yes, you are right, we continue to cooperate at the UN level. We discuss issues and we are able to arrive at common positions. And we appreciate your position on the issue of the representation of Africa at the UN level. We continue to be a continent that is not represented in the key structures of the UN, and we thank you for being supportive in that regard.
Our cooperation also extends to the G20, where we are able to work together on a number of issues, and, of course, at the BRICS level. We are delighted to have your support, as we are going to host a BRICS summit in a few weeks. We agree with you: yes, BRICS should be held at the appropriate level. We are in the process of preparing for BRICS, and we thank you for the support that you are giving and are willing to give as a number of Russian officials and ministers have been to South Africa now to attend various preparatory meetings that are taking place for BRICS. We are hoping that the participation of all the BRICS countries would lead to a very good outcome. We are looking forward to a very successful BRICS summit, and thank you very much for your continued support in this regard.
So, thank you very much for having us in St Petersburg, and let me also end by thanking you for the opening dinner that we had and the performances. The performances that displayed the culture of St Petersburg were outstanding. But, once again, I want to thank you for the last performance, because that last performance was African. It was fantastic. I saw many people in my delegation beginning to dance, so that was good. Thank you.”
President of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo, expressed what many Western nations don’t understand about Africa’s relationship with Russia:
"I would like to tell President Vladimir Putin that you can rely on Guinea-Bissau as a trusted partner. We are not just friends. We are brothers. We will never forget the support that the fraternal Soviet people rendered to us during our struggle for independence. Today, we have arrived here and are representing an independent nation. We have become independent owing to you. We cannot forget this."
President of Eritrea Isaias Afwerki outright condemned NATO aggression and the neoliberalism dollar:
“When people talk about Russia and Ukraine, I say that there is no Russia-Ukraine war at all, there is no Russia-Ukraine conflict. This is a war that was declared by NATO on Russia. The war declared by NATO on Russia is not only against Russia; its aim is to dominate the whole world.
This is an agenda they developed after the end of the Cold War. They came up with this fantasy about containing Russia, containing any power – small or big – that challenges them technologically, economically, socially, culturally. They have to contain everybody.
This is a defunct ideology. I say Russia did not prepare to face this declared war, even though Russia was aware of the dynamics of what was going on. NATO is defunct. NATO does not exist. NATO is in intensive care. The EU does not exist. The EU is in intensive care. Thirty years ago, when they decided to contain Russia, they felt that it was a major threat for them.
China was not considered a threat at that time. Now they know that they missed the point. They could not contain Russia. They will never contain Russia. Ukraine is a sacrifice. Ukraine is a price they have to pay. They are not paying on their own: they will provide billions and billions even trillions to continue this war.
Now we need to look at the narrative thread: this is not a war between Russia and Ukraine; this is a declared war against Russia because Russia was a major threat to them. Now they have to defeat Russia so that they hegemonise everything.
They need to be your equals technologically, militarily, they have to be superior economically, they have to control everything, grab every resource here and there, and get technology under their control. That dream is no more.
The fighting going on in Ukraine is their battleground. That battleground is a sacrifice for them. We need to put this thread on the record, when a big meeting like this Russia-Africa summit is held, people will have to come to a consensus – this is not a war between Russia and Ukraine to me, and anyone who has a different explanation will have to tell me.
This is a war declared on Russia but a war declared to achieve hegemony. In the last 30 years I have seen the details of the mechanism of this declared war; this last event is the final phase to me. It will end sometime. NATO will not get out of intensive care. The EU will not get out of intensive care. These systems are crumbling. It is only a matter of time.
The whole world will have to be prepared not to defend Russia but to stand with Russia so that this hegemonistic ideology does not prevail at any point in history.
How do we design a plan? How do we make their plan fail without any further cost? They are printing money. They are not manufacturing anything at all; it is all about printing money. And this is one of their weapons. The global monetary system controlled by the dollar and the euro is being used. They are introducing sanctions and freezing accounts – these are their tools. This is not going to continue indefinitely.
We need a new financial architecture, globally, one that is not controlled by the euro, the dollar or other currencies. Following this failed attempt to contain Russia they will immediately move to the East: containing China is their next agenda. They are playing a very deceptive tactic, telling everyone: “Oh, no, we have to work with China, we have to do this and that.”
Their calculation about China has proved to be wrong. They have failed: they probably have the technology, they have everything, the Chinese can only copy those things, but they will never equal them. So, they will contain Russia while promoting friendship with China and continuing to use it so that containing Russia would be easier for them.
Now China is out of control. Containing China from Taiwan, from India, from Japan, from the South Kurils, from Australia – how do they do it, how will they do it? That challenge is coming next, but first they need to deal with Russia. How do they want to deal with Russia and then move on to China? How can they deal with everybody? How do they contain us?
Imagine, this time Eritrea is being contained by them. We are being punished with their sanctions all the time. We have to be punished because we are not bowing to their conditionalities. We are a very small threat; we are not even a threat to them. But they have to contain us: sanctions, sanctions, sanctions, conflict here, conflict there.
I think we need to strategise and I say Russia will have to lead this strategy. Russia will have to design a plan on facing this declared war, not only on Russia, but this is a global war. Everybody should come and join Russia in this strategy, and the sooner, the better. The easiest way for us to control their hegemonistic strategy and frustrate that strategy is to have peace, and then development will come.
Nobody is going to bother us, nobody is going to bully anybody. They are using defamation, demonisation, psychological warfare, sanctions. We will need an alternative strategy to deal with this hegemonistic declaration of war. And every event – bilateral or multilateral – will have to adopt this strategy, and that is why I say during my remarks that Russia should design a strategy.
It is not because Russia will have to do everything; we can make our contribution. It is a matter of ideas: how do we face this hegemonistic strategy in a way that we are able implement bilateral programmes, technology, industrialisation, agriculture, energy, water management, services, tourism, life in general – how do we do that?
Now, we have to look at this in the historical context. This is a continuation of classical slavery. After slavery came colonialism. Slavery was exterminating populations. Nine million people were exterminated in the Congo, Indians were exterminated in North America and in Canada. They were exterminating indigenous populations and grabbing control of their land.
And when they got control of the land, they had to bring slaves from Africa for their cotton plantations in the United States. That was slavery, and it continues. Then the industrialisation came. That was a matter of grabbing other countries’ resources and the continuation of slavery. Then a different form – colonialism – came: they colonised territories so that they could grab control of the land, and then they controlled labour and enslaved everybody.
Then there was neo-colonialism and the Cold War. Russia was the hope of the people of the world during the period of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, leaders in the Soviet Union made mistakes that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was a historic tragedy, as you said at one point. That was a historic tragedy: in the course of the history of humanity that was a catastrophe.
That was one of the reasons that encouraged people like Fukuyama and Huntington to design their strategy of hegemony. Because the Soviet Union collapsed, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and they felt that they could control the world for the coming 50 or 100 years without anyone challenging them.
That was when this hegemonistic fantasy emerged. We have seen what they have done over the last 30 years. It is a continuation of the same ideology of slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, and then hegemony.
The world will have to overcome this state of affairs. We are at a crossroads. We believe we are in transition to a new world order. How do we design a new world order? How can we possibly strategise, how do we use the resources, how do we make people everywhere aware that this threat exists. And if they get out of this situation, they can enjoy their liberty, their freedom, their development without this hegemonistic idea.
I think this issue will have to be thoroughly addressed and we need to come up with concrete plans. We will make our modest contribution, but we have the understanding that this Russia-Africa partnership is one part of the bigger global partnership that we will have to develop.
Russia will have to take the lead, because Russia has been targeted and is still being targeted. They might dream of using the war in Ukraine now to weaken Russia and they probably dream about the same event happening. The collapse of Russia will be a big advantage for them. It is a dream. They are now spending trillions and trillions by printing money to run the show in Ukraine. This will have to end at some point.
We need to look beyond that. Our bilateral partnership is based on our understanding of this historic mission of Russia. Russia has a historic mission to play. On behalf of everybody in the world I can say who is the leader of this show – Mr Vladimir Putin is the leader of the show. Russia should take the lead because of the challenge that we are facing.
I am not flattering anyone. I am not doing any favour to you. I say this is a global challenge and we have to overcome it by identifying the role of each and every one of us in the whole story.
Economic programmes, energy, water, infrastructure – you name it. Everyone will have a strategy and will define their goals and objectives. Once we have a strategy in place, we will draw detailed plans on each and every sector, each and every industry. We will mobilise the resources for implementing those programmes and we will see that implementing them will change people’s lives in Africa, Asia, Latin America, even Europe and the United States also.
Our detailed plans for sectoral programmes are ready: on each and every sector we have our own strategic plan. We have considered the details of each and every item of an infrastructure programme: roads, ports, airports, railway, energy programmes, water preservation and water management programmes, irrigation, introducing technologies, and our human resource development strategies. We discussed it yesterday with one of your ministers. We agreed on the details of how we will go about this because the development of our human resources is a priority for us. There could be other resources: oil, gas, minerals, and so on. But human resources are our human capital. We need to invest in that and we can rely on the Russian Federation to help develop our capacity to implement developmental programmes by guaranteeing the qualified human resources that we need. The details are there.
Do we have the money? We will try to mobilise every single penny, and if we cannot mobilise this resource, we will say to our partners in the Russian Federation: “These are our plans and if you have an idea or an opinion, or alternatives we would like to listen.”
Mobilising resources is a shared responsibility and we can mobilise our own resources from whatever is available: mining, agriculture, manufacturing. We can do that.”
If the news you view doesn’t mention anything I’ve shared with you, then its not the news.