On 11 May, the United States Ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety II, called a press conference in Pretoria, saying he would "bet my life" that South Africa smuggled weapons to Russia aboard the Lady R tanker.
Brigety's shocking announcement, dubbed #LadyRussiagate, had a devastating impact on South Africa. Assuming that the ambassador would have been privy to solid information, if not evidence, from his country's expansive intelligence agencies, the West slammed South Africa for actively arming an aggressor in a devastating war.
Brigety's announcement did massive damage to South Africa's global reputation and standing. Although the country could legitimately be criticised for its so-called "neutral" stance on Russia's war in Ukraine, there is a big difference between not supporting resolutions of the United Nations and arming Russia.
The latter would have placed South Africa among the skunks of the world who actively support Russia in their war against Ukraine - countries like North Korea, Syria and Belarus.
In addition to the reputational damage, Brigety's shocking "revelation" directly contributed to the Rand plummeting from R18.80 against the US dollar before the announcement to R19.30 a week later. The currency only returned to pre-Brigety levels a month later.
This directly contributed to the South African Reserve Bank hiking the repo rate by 50 basis points; a completely preventable decision that impacted millions.
The DA's seasoned shadow minister of finance, Dion George, commented in the wake of Brigety's announcement: "This alignment [with Russia] alienates South Africa from Western trade partners, a development that would invariably invite economic repercussions, including the devaluation of our currency and loss of trade benefits. This strains the SARB in its effort to shield the rand, intensifying our battle against inflation."
In the wake of Brigety's bombshell, the government scrambled to comment coherently on what exactly happened that December 2022 night in Simon's Town harbour – a national key point.
It took Thandi Modise, the defence minister, two weeks to say in crude language that nothing was loaded onto the Lady R. Modise's explanation for the Lady R's presence in South Africa was always that it was the late offloading of ammunition, bought by South Africa from Russia before Covid-19 hit the world.
The ammunition is reportedly used by the army's special forces in fighting terrorism in northern Mozambique.
President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed the experienced former Deputy Judge President of Gauteng, Phineas Mojapelo, to investigate Brigety's claims that South Africa – either through the state or private entities – loaded weapons onto the Lady R after the Russian ammunition was offloaded.
In the meanwhile, the South African government scrambled to repair relationship damage with the United States. Bipartisan lawmakers threatened to remove us as a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
AGOA is a huge boost for duty-free exports to the US of goods and products, like cars, fruit and wine.
But in Washington DC, the Biden administration had uncomfortable questions about Brigety's bold claim. The respected publication Politico quoted several sources in the Biden administration, saying the ambassador had "overstated what the US definitively knows".
Some saw Brigety's claims as a useful punch in the gut to remind South Africa about its much deeper economic ties with the West and China, than with Russia. But Washington had become deeply concerned that it was based on a lie.
In recent weeks, there had been several reports, including on News24, that Mojapelo had concluded his report and found no arms were shipped to Russia. The process is unfortunately cloaked in secrecy, and Ramaphosa has been urged to release the full report.
But it seems those in the know, who have had access to the report, agree that Brigety got it wrong. US officials gave input to the Mojapelo investigation, so he saw whatever Brigety saw that led to the fateful press briefing of 11 May. No arms were loaded onto the ship.
South Africa will not take his life, but the best Brigety can do is to unconditionally apologise and tender his resignation. It is unconscionable that he can remain in his position with moral authority after such mendacity.
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