The South African Communist Party says that the African peace mission to Ukraine and Russia was ‘crucially important’, and ‘encourages’ the participating heads of state to do more to find a resolution.
This is despite what the party sees as deliberate obstruction of these plans by the machinations of ‘imperialist’ forces.
The party’s statement came on the eve of the apparent revolt by the mercenary Wagner Group – a key Russian asset in its war against Ukraine – and the mounting bellicosity of its controversial leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In a statement, SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila said: ‘As the SACP, we fully support the effort by Africa to seek an end to the conflict in Ukraine by peaceful diplomatic means, as opposed to those who want South Africa and other African states to pick a side, and unashamedly that of imperialist forces.’
The statement went on to assert – as it has done previously – that ‘the United States, the United Kingdom, and other former colonial powers from western Europe, who are at the centre of the European Union, provoked the conflict in Ukraine in pursuit of their imperialist interests.’ This was part of a geopolitical drive that was aimed ‘ultimately at China.’
‘The imperialist forces created the conditions for Russia’s response in the form of its Special Military Operation, which they turned into war,’ claimed Mapaila.
It also attacked Poland for racism, and took swipes at some (unnamed) South African media, civil society and at the Democratic Alliance, all of whom were supposedly furthering the nefarious aims of imperialism.
[Image: Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay]