EDITORIAL: On Russia, the ANC shows its moral atheism – BusinessLIVE

If youre wondering why President Cyril Ramaphosas noble promises have failed to translate into action, look no further than the breathtakingly mealy-mouthed statement by the ANCs international relations chair, Lindiwe Zulu.

On Sunday, as Vladimir Putins Russia was on day three of a special military operation that involved shelling residential areas in cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv, Zulu issued a statement expressing her deep concern about the rapid escalation of conflict. Studiously avoiding using the word invasion, she said the ANC was appalled but not surprised by those beating the drum of war when instead they should have been pre-empting confrontation by being insistent on dialogue. Presumably, Zulu means those who called for intervention to stop Russia shelling another sovereign state. Had there been any working televisions, radio, newspapers or the internet in Luthuli House, Zulu who also doubles as SAs intellectually towering minister of social development might have noticed that Putin had pretty much ruled out dialogue when he spoke of the band of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that sits in Kyiv, arguing that Russias interests were non-negotiable.

Its predictable, if depressing: in Ramaphosas ANC, a violent incursion into a sovereign state is just an excuse for another talk shop, another commission, another belated morticians report.

Now, its clear that the picture is more nuanced than a blunt good vs evil binary. Putin is seething that Western countries have ignored his claim that Ukraine broke the Minsk agreement, which would give the two provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk relative autonomy. And hes paranoid about Nato-aligned countries inching east, and incorporating Ukraine this is a red line, he says.

Yet Putins remedy for his embellished grievance is disproportionate and a breach of international law. His ruse for remaking Imperial Russia by sending in 150,000 troops relies on dopes like Zulu swallowing his line that its a peacekeeping mission.

In the ANC statement, Zulu warns that people must apply their minds in the face of brazen propaganda and unprecedented disinformation even as she falls hook, line and sinker for a whopper herself. There must be a throng of slick salesmen outside her door, trying to flog her an emerging cryptocurrency, or the next big thing in 4IR.

But then, when youve made a career of putting ideology ahead of truth, comforted by the cotton-wool swaddling of phrases like imperial manipulation, maybe its what youre intellectually obliged to do. Hers is a mission statement for a la-la land of dopey diplomats and unctuous officials, inevitably surprised when the inevitable happens.

Not everyone in the ANC is able to spout vacuous revolutionary slogans on command. Naledi Pandor, for one, must be overdue for a stint in a re-education gulag after forgetting that values are subservient to ideology. Last week, Pandors department of international relations & co-operation called for Russia to respect Ukraines sovereignty.

Apparently, this didnt please Ramaphosa, who, the Sunday newspapers reported, was irked at such a resolute take on an issue that could have been diluted into something far more wishy-washy.

Speaking to the media last Friday, Ramaphosa said that if US President Joe Biden had agreed to meet Putin to discuss the Ukraine situation without any conditions, Im sure we would have avoided the calamitous situation that is unfolding now.

Which, of course, is an irrelevant argument.

And yet this is illuminating of Ramaphosas loyalties, driven in part by SAs awkward alliance with the Brics countries Brazil, Russia, India and China.

It underscores the extent to which the ANC has long had a misplaced romanticism of Russia. Maybe its because the ANCs financial woes precluded it buying any textbooks dated after 1989, or maybe its because leaders like David Mabuza are always dashing off to Moscow for a miracle anti-poisoning elixir.

But again, that becomes a subservient concern when you sign up to a bill of rights, and attest to global democratic treaties that oblige you to respect sovereign boundaries.

In recent years the ANCs critics have spoken of its creeping moral agnosticism. Its actually worse than that the party now seems to be embracing a far more active atheism, in which it no longer believes in the ethically courageous path.

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EDITORIAL: On Russia, the ANC shows its moral atheism - BusinessLIVE