SA’s shuttle diplomacy between Kyiv and Moscow is at Ukraine’s direction, says Dirco DG

South Africa is in discussions with Ukraine about whether it should continue to provide shuttle diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine in the peace process between the two warring nations, given the US’s dominant role.

Zane Dangor, the director-general of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), disclosed this at Daily Maverick’s The Gathering in Cape Town on Thursday, 28 August.

Dangor had just got off a plane after returning from Ukraine, where he engaged with officials from that country’s foreign ministry and presidency and members of the national security community about what role SA should play in the peace process.

He told Daily Maverick’s Ferial Haffajee that SA had been part of the international discussions on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace formula since May 2023.

He said he went to Ukraine to ensure that in the new environment where the US appeared to be taking over the peace process, the principles to which SA adhered were still being observed. These included an unconditional ceasefire and that “guardrails must be in place to ensure that there’s no annexation of land through the use of force”, which would violate the UN charter.

Read more: What role, if any, is South Africa playing in Ukraine peace efforts?

A Western diplomat told Daily Maverick they were encouraged that SA appeared to have strengthened its approach to the protection of Ukrainian territory.

Dynamic situation

Dangor said he had wanted to establish from the Ukrainians whether SA still had a role to play in the light of the new dynamics which the US had introduced — which had shifted the focus to more bilateral engagements between Ukraine and the US — and with the possibility of a meeting soon between the US, Ukraine and Russia.

He said SA had been conducting shuttle diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine, but wanted to know whether this would still be necessary.

The Ukrainians had invited him to these discussions because they felt they needed to keep open as many channels of negotiations as possible.

He said Kyiv wanted the shuttle diplomacy to continue, and SA would be guided by Ukraine. However, a lot was going to happen over the next couple of weeks.

“Hopefully, the trilateral [between Russia, Ukraine and the US] does happen, and they do get what we want to call a just and sustainable peace.”

Asked by Haffajee if he felt there might be a breakthrough, he replied, “The situation is so dynamic that what you think may be a breakthrough on a Sunday, and then you may find that by the next Thursday the world has changed completely.”

He added, “A just peace is important in the sense that if you lay the basis for massive loss of territory, and you go against the UN Charter prohibitions on the annexation of land, that has got consequences for many other parts of the world.”

G20 on track

Dangor said SA was making good progress in its presidency of the G20, having completed 87 out of 137 planned meetings before the summit in November. In addition, there had been agreements at all the ministerial meetings of both G20 tracks — the finance track and the “sherpa” (political) track.

Though US participation had fluctuated, Dangor said the latest instruction from Washington was that from 1 September the US would participate in both tracks at undersecretary (director-general) level. Dangor said it was still unclear whether US President Donald Trump would attend the summit.

But it was a good sign that the US would participate at senior official level.

“That means that whoever’s behind the flag represents the country, and whoever negotiates behind that flag then buys into the agreements that are forged in those discussions.” This meant the G20 should be “reasonably successful”.

Dangor said the Cabinet had given instructions that SA should not abandon its ambitious G20 agenda — especially on climate change and debt.

Read more: SA praised for achieving second G20 ministerial declaration on SDGs

He said if there was one thing SA hoped to get out of the G20, it was an agreement that dismantled the factors curtailing economic growth in Africa, an important one of which was debt.

“If we get a consensus-based document that covers key issues for us, which is linked to our theme, which is on sustainability, which is the climate change agenda, but also the debt agenda, that for me would be a win.”

On geopolitical issues, he said he would consider it a success if there was a chairperson’s statement, even without consensus.

Getting a good standalone document on debt would be important, especially if the institutions dealing with debt in Africa were to implement it.

Negotiating US tariffs

Dangor said negotiations with the US to try to lessen the 30% tariff it slapped on SA last month were going well, but he didn’t believe the US had yet responded to the revised trade offer SA had presented to the US this month.

Haffajee asked him how SA felt about its place in the world right now — particularly as the US apparently regarded SA as a pariah — and he said the government had been told it was punching above its weight and was seen as a “norm entrepreneur”.

“We have been called legal nerds in some spaces,” he said, because SA’s foreign policy was always guided by international law.

SA was trying to drive equality and inclusivity, so it would be odd to regard it as a pariah, even if those values were now frowned upon by the most powerful nation in the world, he said.

Read more: Department of Trade, Industry and Competition says 30,000 jobs at risk from Trump tariffs

Haffajee asked Dangor how SA was finding a balance between sticking to its values and protecting exports (ie, to the US) and jobs.

Dangor said SA would negotiate with the US to protect SA industries, “but in a way that doesn’t impinge on our sovereignty”. Most of the compromises SA would make would be about trade issues (and not principles, he implied). He said SA had to diversify its markets away from the US.

New ambassador pending

Dangor disclosed that the government would announce a new ambassador to the US “in the next couple of weeks” to replace Ebrahim Rasool, who was expelled from the US this year.

Haffajee asked Dangor why SA had “shot itself in the foot” by submitting its revised trade offer to the US, and then three days later, the head of the SANDF, General Rudzani Maphwanya, made political statements in Iran that inflamed relations with the US.

Did he know that the general would be doing that?

Dangor noted that his department had issued a statement that only the President and the minister of international relations and cooperation were mandated to make political statements, and the military should not do so.

Read more: President Ramaphosa to meet SANDF chief over ‘ill-advised’ visit to Iran

The defence ministry had planned the visit of the general well in advance. “But, unfortunately, we were not reminded that the meeting was taking place.”

(Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said on Wednesday that his office had received an official note from the US asking for an explanation of Maphwanya’s statements in Iran. He said he had not yet replied to the US.)

On SA taking Israel to the International Court of Justice for committing genocide in Gaza, Dangor said SA was heartened by the fact that many countries which had criticised SA for doing so were now starting to agree with it.

“Many more states are now starting to use the word genocide.”

Read more: Dirco’s Zane Dangor speaks out on ICJ genocide case as Gaza teeters on edge of famine

He said SA felt vindicated that it had taken a contentious approach to the case, which allowed for the court to issue provisional measures that were binding and would prevent further harm. That was why it had asked for provisional measures instructing Israel to provide unhindered humanitarian access to the people of Gaza early on

“Because our projections in January already showed that they were at a famine Level 3 and that if it was not stopped, you would have what is now famine Level 5, which is a catastrophe.” DM