APA-Pretoria (South Africa) President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to appoint a retired judge to lead a panel probing last December’s docking of a Russian ship at Simon’s Town dockyard in Cape Town was within the country’s laws to protect national security and international diplomacy, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has said.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, Magwenya said the presidency had noted the intention expressed by the opposition Democratic Alliance to challenge in court the appointment of retired judge Phineas Mojapelo as the head of the investigative panel.
The spokesperson said Ramaphosa carefully considered the decision to appoint a judge to head the panel as opposed to a commission of inquiry whose proceedings would have been held in public.
“President Ramaphosa acted within the law in doing so and we are confident that this appointment will withstand scrutiny,” he said.
Magwenya said in its “politically motivated court action,” the DA wants to undermine the country’s national interests by failing to appreciate the importance of resolving this matter in a manner that was “credible and expeditious.”
He added: “The DA is failing to appreciate the damage this issue has caused to our economy, and potentially, to very important diplomatic relations.”
These relations were now repaired due to the level of credibility attached to the panel and its work, the outcome of the investigation and the intensive amount of diplomatic work that has been conducted to date – and was still being managed, he said.
The Russian ship, Lady R, was alleged to have docked at the naval base in Simon Town to load weapons from South Africa bound for Russia to be used in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
Mojapelo’s panel announced that it found no such evidence at the end of its months-long probe.
NM/jn/APA