The Lady R investigation and its report – with the exception of an executive summary – will remain secret as will, it appears, the “total monetary cost” to South Africa.
This is the nub of the response given to Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) National Assembly (NA) parliamentarian Mzwanele Manyi by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Manyi asked him to elaborate on “the total monetary cost to the Republic in terms of Rands lost due to the loss of confidence in the Republic” in the wake of completion of the Lady R investigation.
Ramaphosa’s written reply reads: “A preliminary analysis by the National Treasury considered that there was a significant depreciation in the Rand against the US dollar in May 2023, as much as 2.4%. While this was in part due to the pronouncements of the US Ambassador to South Africa regarding the Lady R vessel, other variables would need to be considered to arrive at a monetary cost, such as concerns about high inflation, debt servicing costs and the impact of loadshedding”.
“To assign a monetary value to a single event would therefore be speculative. There is no doubt, however, that the elevated geopolitical risk was to blame for the Rand’s further depreciation.”
On whether the person who initially pointed the finger at the Russian cargo vessel as supposedly illegally moving arms and ammunition – United States (US) Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety – will be recalled, Manyi was given the diplomatic equivalent of no.
The Ramaphosa response to this part of the question, asked by the former head of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) and one-time spokesman for then president Jacob Zuma and subsequently his Jacob G Zuma Foundation, noted the US senior diplomat in South Africa was demarched (an objection or protest to actions by a foreign government). The demarche came from the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO) with Minister Naledi Pandor, as per Ramaphosa’s response, expressing “outrage and displeasure at the manner in which the allegations were made”.
“There are,” the Ramaphosa response reads, “prescribed diplomatic protocols which should have been used to convey any concerns of the US government in relation to the Lady R vessel”.
Brigety claimed he would stake his life on evidence that South Africa loaded weapons for Russia aboard the Lady R, but has not released any further information to date. His claims prompted Ramaphosa to establish a panel to investigate the docking of the Lady R in Simons Town in December 2022. The panel found no weapons were loaded, and the ship was delivering equipment destined the SA National Defence Force, apparently small arms ammunition for the Special Forces.
