APA-Pretoria (South Africa) Former South African president Thabo Mbeki says it is illogical for the US to suggest that the African country has supplied Russia with some of the weapons it is using in its war against Ukraine since Moscow has a far advanced arms industry compared to Pretoria.
Mbeki said the Russian weapons industry was far more sophisticated than that of South Africa and the local industry did not produce the sophisticated weapons that the Russians are using in Ukraine.
“There are no weapons that the Russians would want to buy from South Africa,” he told the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation on Friday.
This follows the allegations of the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, a few weeks ago that South Africa sent weapons to Russia in December 2022.
According to Mbeki, the stringent laws regulating South Africa’s armaments industry would not allow such a transaction to take place anyway.
“The law in South Africa does not allow for the export of weapons to countries that are in conflict,” the former president said.
He added: “So I doubt it. I don’t think it happened.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa has set up an inquiry into the allegations.
NM/jn/APA