South Africa is, of course, free to decide who to cooperate with, European Union foreign minister Josep Borrell says about the visit to South Africa this week by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. 

But then he adds: “Ukraine wanted to do the same — to decide what is best on its own. And for this, it was attacked in a brutal violation of its sovereignty.”  

Borrell arrives in South Africa on Thursday to discuss many other issues and joint interests, and to conduct a political dialogue with his South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor.

The EU’s partnership with South Africa is wide-ranging, from peace and security to promoting human rights, good governance, sustainable development, energy and climate change, innovation and working together in international bodies, he said in a written reply to Daily Maverick. 

The meeting with Pandor takes place against the backdrop of a “perfect storm” in world affairs, including unprecedented global instability, a growing disregard for international rules and agreements, more actors using power politics to dominate or intimidate neighbours, and the “weaponisation of everything”, including food, energy, hunger and migration, Borrell says.

Africa a ‘collateral victim’

And, he says, Africa is a “collateral victim of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine”.

Such problems could only be tackled by global cooperation, and the EU wants to work with SA and Africa to actively shape a changing world which is stable, just and prosperous. In this, he says, Africa should play a more central role.

Borrell says he would certainly discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine with Pandor, “fully aware that we may see things differently”.

On Monday, after meeting Lavrov, Pandor again refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She said it would have been “simplistic and infantile” to have repeated to Lavrov the call her department had made to Moscow on 24 February, to withdraw its military forces from Ukraine “immediately” and to respect its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

To urge him to do so this week would have revealed her ignorance of the greatly changed circumstances since the war began on 24 February, Pandor added, such as the massive transfer of arms that had occurred, and the level which the conflict had reached. 

Daily Maverick asked Borrell if South Africa’s refusal to condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine — and its apparently growing friendship with Moscow — was causing concern to Brussels and perhaps jeopardising EU-South Africa relations.

“South Africa is a sovereign country with its own foreign policy and legitimate interests,” he replied. “It is, of course, free to decide with whom to cooperate and build a future together.” That’s when Borrell added that Ukraine had hoped to do the same before it was attacked by Russia last year.

“Let’s recall that Russia already took away part of Ukrainian territory in 2014 with the illegal annexation of Crimea,” Borrell said. “And now it is bombing civilians in their homes and is trying to freeze them out by destroying power plants and civilian infrastructure.”

UN Charter

Borrell said it was important for him to discuss the war with Pandor because it was not only impacting on Europe, “but more importantly because it challenges the UN Charter and the set of international rules that are important for and protect people and countries in Africa and beyond…. No one can live safely in a world where the illegal use of force is normalised or tolerated.”

Borrell added that the International Court of Justice had confirmed last March that “Russia is clearly the aggressor in this conflict” and should withdraw from Ukraine.  

“Apart from the huge human suffering this war causes in Ukraine, Russia is dragging the world into an economic recession and a global food and energy crisis with its blockade of Ukrainian grain exports, looting of its resources and using fossil fuels and energy as a weapon.”

And so the EU was working with all of its partners — among which SA was paramount — to try to counter this fallout.

Beyond Ukraine, Daily Maverick asked Borrell if he thought South Africa was doing enough to ensure security in its own backyard, southern Africa, given the continuing jihadist insurgency in northern Mozambique, growing unrest and assassinations in Eswatini and democratic repression in Zimbabwe. 

Regional security

“South Africa is an essential actor in a region that is facing a variety of political and security challenges,” Borrell said.

He added that cooperation on peace and security was a key element of the EU’s strategic partnership with South Africa, and the EU was also deepening its cooperation with the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Borrell said it was worrying that, despite the military intervention of SADC and Rwanda in July 2021, the jihadist insurgency in northern Mozambique had not yet been fully eliminated. 

But he added that the Mozambican, SADC and Rwandese armed forces, with the support of the EU Military Training Mission, “are developing a new model of cooperation that I am confident will bear fruit”.

Officials explained it was a “new model” because it comprised, unusually,  a regional mission, Samim (the SADC Mission in Mozambique), a bilateral military mission, Rwanda and an EU training mission. 

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Borrell said that last year the EU and its member states had supported the peacebuilding activities of Samim with €1.9-million and had approved a further €15-million for non-lethal equipment for Samim.

Twelve EU member states were participating in the EU training mission, with 110 soldiers deployed and 600 Mozambican soldiers trained so far.

Borrell stressed that this security assistance was part of an integrated approach to the crisis, which also included humanitarian, developmental and peacebuilding activities. 

He expressed regret that the Eswatini government had still not launched the comprehensive and inclusive dialogue it had agreed to, which the EU considered a priority and which it would continue to support. 

Borrell urged all stakeholders to play their role in ensuring credible and peaceful elections in Zimbabwe and added that South Africa’s efforts in that regard were important. 

“We are having a constant and frank exchange with the authorities in Harare,” Borrell said.

Electricity crisis

Daily Maverick also asked Borrell if the EU was worried that, with the imminent departure of Eskom CEO André de Ruyter — and the rise of renewables-sceptic Gwede Mantashe — South Africa’s commitment to the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) was in jeopardy. 

Borrell did not reply directly, but noted that President Ramaphosa and the EU and other international partners had endorsed SA’s Investment Plan for the JETP, which was an important element in South Africa’s decarbonisation efforts. 

“We are now working together to build on this positive result and move ahead with implementation,” he said. 

As part of the initial $8.5-billion funding package by the international partners, the EU’s JETP financial package combined loans and grant funding. During the coming years, the EU would mobilise at least €35-million of grants and €1-billion of concessional loans for the JETP. 

“JETP will crowd in massive private investment to develop new low-carbon sectors as well as growth and new jobs,” Borrell said, helping address South Africa’s energy needs and its climate agenda, and strengthening its energy security. The JETP would also help to ensure no one was left behind as SA moved away from coal to renewables.

“And it will certainly contribute to overcoming difficulties in the electricity system faced by South Africa.”

Asked if the EU was concerned about SA’s crumbling infrastructure, especially its power grid and its railways, and could offer any help, Borrell noted that the EU was trying to address infrastructure constraints by providing resources for capacity development and innovative finance. He mentioned the €100-million the EU had put into the Infrastructure Investment Programme for SA. 

And apart from the JETP investments, the two Team Europe initiatives for SA and the EU Global Gateway initiatives could also address barriers to private sector investment in SA’s energy transition.

Health aid

On EU help in fighting Covid and other diseases, Borrell recalled that the EU had provided €400-million for the expansion of Aspen’s vaccine production capacity; the establishment of the first mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in Cape Town, and a grant to support the Cape Town Biovac company’s vaccine manufacturing capacity.

Borrell noted that the EU had joined the consensus of WTO members last June on a TRIPS waiver to allow SA and other developing countries to manufacture and export Covid-19 vaccines without the consent of the pharmaceutical companies holding the patents.

Discussions were now ongoing to extend the TRIPS waiver to Covid-19 therapeutics and diagnostics, Borrel added. But he noted that just lifting patent protection “does not in itself enable successful production of medicinal products.

“Developing manufacturing capacity requires a concerted effort: to develop production capacities, source ingredients, train personnel, build and maintain facilities, establish regional value chains for health products and to incentivise technology transfer. 

“But in the end, this is the only solution to a pandemic: Africa needs to produce its vaccines for its citizens on the continent.” DM