Pretoria South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor waited patiently for ten minutes at her office on Tuesday for her colleague from Germany, who was stuck in a traffic jam. When Annalena Baerbock finally arrives, she greets her with two kisses on the cheeks.
The exchange that followed is likely to have been less harmonious than the pictures suggested. Germany’s relationship with South Africa is difficult. The ruling ANC party is officially neutral, but has taken a pro-Russian stance in the Ukraine war. The country is suspected of having supplied weapons to Russia.
Baerbock only arrived in South Africa that night, actually she wanted to arrive on Sunday. However, she had to postpone her visit to Cape Town due to the situation in Russia. For Baerbock, however, there was no question of completely canceling the talks in the South African capital of Pretoria.
Rather, the uprising against Vladimir Putin’s absolute power in Russia was an opportunity for Baerbock to show South Africa how uncertain the situation in Moscow is – and how uncertain it is to bet on the Russian President. “We are a reliable partner,” stressed Baerbock. “More reliable than autocrats could ever be” – because their power is based on violence.
Indirectly, she urged her counterpart to be more determined against the war. The conflict in Ukraine is not just a European one, it also affects Africa, said Baerbock, citing the increased energy and food prices caused by the war.
I don’t think it was a mutiny. South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor on the Wagner uprising in Russia
However, Baerbock’s successes in South Africa were limited. After all, the South African government is now talking about the Ukraine “war” and no longer just belittling the military conflict as a “crisis”.
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However, Baerbock’s counterpart Pandor downplayed the weekend’s uprising in Russia and the signal it sent out for Putin’s retention of power on Tuesday – which should be in Moscow’s interest. “I don’t think it was a mutiny,” says Pandor. If anything, it was an “attempted mutiny.”
Pandor refused to be positioned alongside Russia – that was purely an interpretation. “There is not a single point that would show that we support Russia,” she stressed.
Baerbock took it as a “good sign” that Pandor traveled to Ukraine for peace talks in mid-June together with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and government officials from other African countries.
The President and Foreign Minister of South Africa had traveled to the country attacked by Russia for peace talks.
(Photo: Reuters)
In the afternoon, Baerbock also met Ramaphosa. Instead of 30 minutes as originally planned, they spoke for 75 minutes. So far, the German government has been reluctant to link South Africa’s position in the Ukraine war with consequences for trade relations.
Germany is an important trading partner for South Africa
South Africa would have a lot to lose in this. For the country, the Federal Republic is the second most important bilateral trading partner worldwide. Germany is the third largest export market for South African products, stressed Foreign Minister Pandor on Tuesday.
Other countries, on the other hand, are more explicit in their criticism. Politicians in the US are calling for South Africa to be excluded from privileged access to the American market because of its pro-Russian attitude.
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The irritations are also great in Germany. As recently as February, South Africa held a multi-day military maneuver together with China and Russia – on the anniversary of the Russian invasion at the end of February.
Even more explosive, however, is the US suspicion that the country may have supplied weapons to Moscow. In May, US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety said the US was certain arms and ammunition would be loaded onto a Russian cargo ship near Cape Town in late 2022. Baerbock had then expressed “very concerned”.
In the evening, after less than 24 hours in South Africa, the minister flies back to Berlin. Actually, a visit to a vanadium mine was still on their agenda in the afternoon. But the minister skipped that in favor of the extended talks with the South African President.
It would have been interesting – South Africa is rich in raw materials, vanadium is one of them. The slightly silvery shimmering material, which is reminiscent of black coal from afar, is used for the production of batteries or steel. One of South Africa’s vanadium mines is about an hour’s drive past yellow grass and shabby corrugated iron hats, in the distance there are sparsely covered hills. The mine itself stretches almost as far as the eye can see. The excavators have already dug deep into the ground to lift the valuable raw material.
German-South African economic relations are recovering significantly after the corona low of previous years. Matthias Boddenberg, German Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Southern Africa
Actually, the mining industry could help South Africa’s economy to grow – the raw materials are in demand worldwide. But it’s not just technical challenges that are affecting the mining industry. The Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg, but also many company bosses, have been complaining about ever-increasing electricity costs and frequent power cuts for a long time. In addition, there is constant uncertainty about the legal framework.
The local German economy is also struggling with the many regulations and the sometimes almost daily power cuts. “German-South African economic relations are recovering significantly after the corona low of previous years,” Matthias Boddenberg, head of the Chamber of Commerce for Southern Africa in Johannesburg, told the Handelsblatt. However, the list of problems he then lists is long: the incomplete power supply is just one of them. Other infrastructure deficiencies are also a burden for companies. Added to this is the new regulation of labor law quotas, strict localization rules and much more. “Solutions for this can only be worked out together,” hopes Boddenberg.
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