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In a reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Ronald Lamola, condoned the Speaker of the Gauteng Legislature, Ms Winifred Morakane Mosupyoe’s signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St Peterburg, Mr Aleksandr Nikolaevich Belskiy, in January 2026.

Mr Belskiy is sanctioned by the European Union (EU) in accordance with EU Regulation 269/2014 concerning “restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”. According to the website OpenSanctions, Mr Belskiy “is responsible for inciting hatred against Ukraine, spreading pro-Russian disinformation and propaganda in the context of the war, as well as seeking to garner domestic support in Russia for the war against Ukraine.”

While Minister Lamola tells the world that South Africa does not take sides in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, even making a bizarre attempt to position our country as a mediator in what he continually refers to as a ‘conflict’, he blatantly permits South Africa’s collaboration with sanctioned Russian aggressors.

Given that South Africa cannot even bring itself to condemn the Russian Federation for its illegal invasion of Ukraine, Minister Lamola’s ambivalent and disaffected response further cements the ANC’s untenable support for its Russian allies, and casts further doubt on South Africa’s commitment to non-alignment and the global liberal democratic order.

It is incomprehensible that Minister Lamola can continue to glibly welcome and accept trade and investment from the EU, the most recent amounting to €700 million to modernise transport infrastructure, develop critical raw mineral supply chains, and support local vaccine production, while actively supporting and collaborating with the bloc’s single largest security threat - the Russian Federation.

It is not in South Africa’s national interest to entertain the ANC’s outdated political alliances at the expense of relationships crucial to our country’s trade and investment. Minister Lamola has tacitly supported not only Ms Mosupyoe’s ill-conceived collaboration with a sanctioned Russian politician, but shown that the ANC is willing to place party-political alliances over the existential security of our country’s true ideological allies. We have no legislative business with a country like Russia which props up dictators, murders opposition politicians, jails journalists, and persecutes minorities.

Furthermore, Minister Lamola and DIRCO cannot preach sovereignty and territorial integrity in Venezuela and Palestine, while shaking hands with the very people violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Once again, this has put on full display the ANC’s diplomatic hypocrisy.

As discussions on the National Interest are finally due to progress among Government of National Unity (GNU) cabinet members, the DA will advocate strongly for South Africa’s recommitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights. We will never be taken seriously on the international stage until the ANC abandons its deeply inconsistent relationship with international law, and its outdated global alliances which tarnish our country’s international reputation, inflict harm on our economic diplomacy agenda, and render us a pariah in global affairs.

Issued by Ryan Smith MP - DA Spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation