SOUTH Africa abstained in a vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the resolution condemning the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and demanding their withdrawal.
The South African government has explained that it enjoys good relations with both Russia and the Ukraine; hence it abstained in the UN General Assembly vote condemning the Russian invasion.
President Cyril Ramaphosa subsequently said South Africa abstained because the resolution did not foreground the call for meaningful engagement.
At home, the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance lost no time in taunting the governing African National Congress (ANC) that its abstention was because a Russian oligarch, Victor Vekselberg, had donated R7.5 million to the ANC.
But one cannot assume that a billionaire’s personal views are pro-Putin, merely because he is Russian. Besides, after the Kremlin jailed and sequestrated the billionaire Mikhael Khodorkovsky in 2005, no “oligarch” will ever again express opposition views in public.
In fact, the moniker “oligarch” is
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