Pretoria Naledi Pandol, South Africa’s foreign minister, waited patiently for his German colleagues stuck in traffic for ten minutes in his office on Tuesday. When Annalena Bellbook finally arrived, she greeted her with two kisses on the cheek.
The exchange that follows may not be as harmonious as the picture suggests. Relations between Germany and South Africa are difficult. The ruling ANC party is officially neutral but has taken a pro-Russian stance in the Ukraine war. The country is suspected of supplying arms to Russia.
Bell Bock had only arrived in South Africa that evening and actually wanted to arrive on Sunday. However, due to the situation in Russia, she had to postpone her visit to Cape Town. However, canceling the talks in the South African capital Pretoria entirely is out of the question for Bell Bock.
Instead, the uprising against Vladimir Putin’s absolute power in Russia is an opportunity for Belbok to show South Africa just how uncertain things are in Moscow and bet on the Russian presidency. “We are reliable partners,” Bell Book emphasized. “More reliable than dictators” – because their power is based on violence.
She indirectly urged the other side to be more determined against the war. Belbook said the conflict in Ukraine was not only affecting Europe, but Africa as well, citing rising energy and food prices caused by the war.
I don’t think it’s a mutiny. South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandol on Russia’s Wagner Uprising
However, Belbook had limited success in South Africa. After all, the South African government is now talking about the Ukrainian “war” instead of merely dismissing the military conflict as a “crisis”.
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Belbok’s opponent, Pandor, however, played down the weekend’s uprising in Russia and its signal that Putin would retain power on Tuesday – something that should be in Moscow’s interest. “I don’t think it’s an insurgency,” Pandol said. If anything, it was an “attempted mutiny”.
Pandor refuses to be tied with Russia – this is purely an interpretation. “There is no point in showing that we support Russia,” she stressed.
Bell Bock believes that Pandor, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and government officials from other African countries went to Ukraine for peace talks in mid-June as a “good sign”.
South Africa’s president and foreign minister travel to Russia-hit country for peace talks.
(Photo: Reuters)
In the afternoon, Belbok also met with Ramaphosa. Instead of the planned 30 minutes for their presentations, they had 75 minutes. The German government has so far been reluctant to link South Africa’s position in the Ukraine war to the consequences of the trade relationship.
Germany is an important trading partner of South Africa
South Africa will have a lot to lose in this regard. For the country, the Federal Republic is the second most important bilateral trade partner globally. Foreign Minister Pandor emphasized on Tuesday that Germany is the third largest export market for South African products.
Criticisms from other countries, on the other hand, were more explicit. US politicians have called for South Africa to be excluded from privileged access to the US market due to its pro-Russian attitude.
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The situation in Germany is also irritating. Just this past February, South Africa joined China and Russia in a multi-day military exercise – marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion at the end of February.
More explosively, however, the United States suspects that the country may have supplied weapons to Moscow. In May, Reuben Brigety, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, said the U.S. was confident the weapons and ammunition would be loaded onto a Russian cargo ship near Cape Town in late 2022. Belbook then said he was “very concerned”.
In the evening, after less than 24 hours in South Africa, the minister flew back to Berlin. In fact, a visit to a vanadium mine was included in the afternoon’s agenda. But the minister skipped that and moved on to extended talks with South Africa’s president.
This would have been interesting – South Africa has an abundance of raw materials, vanadium being one of them. This material with a silvery shimmer, far reminiscent of black coal, is used in the production of batteries or steel. A vanadium mine in South Africa is about an hour’s drive past yellow grass and worn corrugated iron caps, with sparse hills beyond. The mine is almost endless. Excavators have dug deep into the ground to unearth valuable raw materials.
German-South African economic relations are recovering significantly after the corona trough of previous years. Matthias Boddenberg, German Southern African Chamber of Commerce and Industry
In fact, mining can help South Africa’s economy grow – raw materials are in demand all over the world. But it’s not just technical challenges that affect the mining industry. The Johannesburg Chamber of Mines, along with many company bosses, have long complained about rising electricity bills and frequent blackouts. Furthermore, there is always uncertainty about the legal framework.
The local economy in Germany also struggles with numerous regulations and sometimes almost daily power outages. Matthias Boddenberg, president of the Southern African Chamber of Commerce in Johannesburg, told Handelsblatt: “German-South African economic relations are recovering significantly after the Covid-19 trough of previous years.” , the list of problems he then listed was long: imperfect power supply was just one of them. Other infrastructure deficiencies are also a burden to businesses. In addition, there are new regulations on labor law quotas, strict localization rules, and so on. “The solution to this problem can only be worked out together,” Bodenberg hopes.
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