President Cyril Ramaphosa and five other African heads of state will lead a peace mission to Russia and Ukraine this week.
The other African leaders on the unprecedented peace plan are from the Republic of Congo, Senegal, Uganda, Egypt and Zambia.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have agreed to receive the mission in their respective capitals.
Ukraine says it will not agree to any freezing of the war or giving up its territory to Russia.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been continuing for over a year, and it is estimated that more than 13 million people have been displaced, either as refugees abroad or within their own country.
At the last count, the UN Human Rights Commission said at least over 8 000 civilians have died and 13 000 two hundred have been wounded in the past year, but insists the true number is likely to be substantially higher.
The conflict has sharply divided the world and African leaders want to end this war.
Ramaphosa says, “We met yesterday (Friday) and confirmed we are at the stage where we can visit Kyiv and Moscow and our mission is a peace mission and we want to dub it as a road to peace. The first thing we want from both sides, is they need to outline to us our perspective of the war as well as the minimum requirements of bringing the conflict to an end.”
For now, their proposed solution remains close guarded except to say they will listen to both sides of the conflict.
He says,” So clearly they will explain where they are. We will be there to listen. It’s important when you have an intervention to listen, to where they are and we will give our perspective on how we see this war on Africa in relation to food prices as far as Europe and the rest of the world and it’s in this context that we will come and say we desire there should be peace.”
Preparations
International Relations Minister Dr Naledi Pandor has been tasked with the preparations for this unprecedented mission. Pandor says, ” We are working on logistics we have an ambassador in Kyiv so Ambassador Groenewald will be the person we ask to support us on the logistics and security arrangements. You are aware there’s a train journey that has to be undertaken from Poland to Kyiv and the journey we have to ensure it is comfortable and secure for the seven African heads of state and we will be going as foreign ministers next week to be part of the advance team.”
With emotions high on both sides, this peace mission by African leaders is proving to be a mammoth task.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says he hopes they will negotiate in good faith.
Kuleba says, “What I did hear about is that a group of African leaders want to come to Kyiv and to Moscow and I don’t know where Putin the aggressor wants to host them, and they want to talk and so if we are talking about this mission as a peace plan then I am aware of it and we are looking forward to hosting these presidents Kyiv and we see value in talking with them.”
“But now if you mean a specific plan to get to peace and if they have it, they have not shared it with us yet and we in this regard we told them that friends and colleagues whatever your ideas about a peace plan please know three things. First, any peace initiative should respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and should not employ even between the lines any cessation of Ukraine’s land to Russia. And second, any peace plan should not lead to the freezing of the conflict because those who think that the urgent task is to freeze the conflict and then see how to fix it afterward are wrong and they don’t understand the logic of this war.”
BRICS Summit
Ramaphosa does not only have the difficult task of leading the African delegation on this peace mission. He is having sleepless nights over the forthcoming BRICS Summit planned for South Africa in August, a meeting where Russian President Vladmir Putin who is indicted by the International Criminal Court is invited.
As a signatory of the Rome Statutes, South Africa has to enforce the arrest if President Putin comes which has placed Pretoria in a predicament. While some reports suggest that the summit could move to China, President Ramaphosa is steadfast that South Africa remains the host country.
Ramaphosa says, “We are South Africa being the host. We obviously have to discuss this and come up with a clear position. Much of what you hear around is really just talk, it’s real talk and in the end, you will hear from me.”
The Ukrainian government is watching South Africa with keen interest,
Kuleba says, “That is up to South Africa to decide where to move the summit. The fact that it is getting more and more difficult for Putin to go anywhere in the world is welcome. But I think the most important thing for any country, a respectable country in the world is to respect the ICC principles it has to abide by its rules and provision and therefore President Putin must not step on South African soil or if he does he must be arrested but in the end, every country decides whether to respect the rules and principles.”
Ramaphosa has over the past few days been engaged in discussions on the peace mission with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jing Ping together with Putin.
It is still not clear whether he and Putin will have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Russia-Ukraine peace mission to discuss Pretoria’s predicament of hosting the BRICS summit.
VIDEO: Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said preparations for Africa’s peace mission to Ukraine and Russia are on track:
