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The office of the Presidency has published the ‘executive summary’ of the independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the docking of the sanctioned Lady R vessel in Simonstown in 2022.
The docking was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year when the United States ambassador to South Africa alleged that the country had used the vessel to deliver arms to Russia for use in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The Lady R docked at Simonstown between 6 and 9 December 2022, where goods were offloaded and (at the time, allegedly) loaded under the cover night.
Given the political sensitivity of the situation – it being a sanctioned Russian vessel, and the happenings taking place so secretively and covertly – many questions were raised about what exactly was going on.
The allegations that followed from the US ambassador thrust the affair into the global spotlight and caused immense damage to South Africa’s reputation as well as its economy as worries of secondary sanctions took hold of markets.
To address the issue, president Cyril Ramaphosa set up an independent investigation chaired by Judge PMD Mojapelo to ascertain what actually happened. In an address on Sunday evening, Ramaphosa said that the full report would not be released to the public – but an executive summary would.
Reflecting the president’s statement, the executive summary clears South Africa of the allegations that it supplied arms to Russia. It also tries to clear up some of the confusion relating to the loading and offloading that took place.
These are the main highlights of the findings:
What was loaded and offloaded?
South Africa ordered undisclosed “equipment” in 2018 that was due for delivery – however, this was delayed by Covid-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The equipment was ordered from a company based in the United Arab Emirates.
This is the equipment that was offloaded. There was no equipment loaded onto the Lady R, the panel said.
However, the equipment offloaded was on pallets and not suitable for transport. The SANDF brought (empty) trucks in to load the equipment.
The pallets left behind after the equipment was moved onto the trucks then had to be taken back onto the ship.
This was because dawn was breaking and there was not enough time to dispose of them.
Why was everything happening at night?
The SANDF said that it is “standard practice” to work in the dead of night in relation to this kind of equipment – specifically in relation to the intended use of the equipment.
The goods were offloaded at night, under cover of darkness. The pallets would have made the equipment and its intended use clear to anyone looking at the dock, so that’s why they had to be brought back onto the ship to then be offloaded again the next night for disposal.
The report did not disclose what equipment was offloaded, but the panel said it was satisfied with the explanation, knowing the full details.
The Lady R is sanctioned – why did the SANDF let it dock?
While the Lady R is sanctioned by the United States, it was noted in the report that these sanctions are not endorsed by the United Nations, and thus South Africa is not a party to them.
The vessel was supposed to dock in Port Elizabeth, but the shipping agents at the dock refused to service it due to the US sanctions, so it was redirected to Simonstown by the SANDF.
Notably, it was explained that South Africa did not know it was the Lady R delivering the equipment until it was already on its way, and the authorities stressed that they had absolutely no control over which vessel was bringing the order.
What laws were broken?
While not mentioning any broken laws, per se, the panel did find that the process was in violation of several provisions of regulations relating to the docking of commercial vessels at South African ports.
This was due to the Lady R switching off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder.
The panel was informed that, as a result of the urgent circumstances in which the docking at Simonstown was procured, and the tracking of the vessel by foreign intelligence agencies, the vessel switched off its AIS.
“The vessel and those who assisted it contravened a number of provisions that relate to commercial vessels docking at South African ports, including SARS designation of a port of entry,” it said.
Recommendations in relation to the future management of foreign vessels’ docking at South African ports – as well as communication between ministers, government officials, the failure to write reports and to keep the President abreast of matters of national importance – have been made.
The full executive summary can be read below.
Read: Ramaphosa says South Africa didn’t give any weapons to Russia
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