In about two weeks’ time, the report by an independent panel appointed to look into the secretive berthing of a banned Russian vessel at a South African naval base will be handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
But while retired judge Phineas Mojapela, who chaired the panel, is said to be finalising his report, the plot about the Lady R thickens every time the government has to hot-foot around prickly questions about its dodgy December call at Simon's Town.
In the latest development, Thandi Modise, Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, deflected yet more questions to establish whether the Lady R had been loaded with any cargo it shouldn’t have.
In a written reply to DA MP Kobus Marais, shadow minister for her portfolio, Modise reiterated that there had been nothing untoward about the Lady R’s visit, despite the satnav shenanigans that had accompanied the vessel’s docking.
Not to mention cargo being offloaded under cover of darkness.
Apparently, Modise said the military cargo that had been offloaded had been ordered pre-Covid but could not be delivered due to lockdown restrictions when the coronavirus pandemic was in full swing.
But Marais and Wayne Duvenage, CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), have rubbished Modise’s claims.
They said Covid might have delayed a cargo consignment for a year, at most, but not three years.
They also pointed out that whatever was on the Lady R had been offloaded by December 9, but that cranes had continued to work the vessel.
According to a report in Netwerk 24, the DA and Outa have pledged to continue exploring the issue that caused diplomatic tension between the US and SA when Ambassador Reuben Brigety alleged that the Lady R had been used to smuggle military goods out of the country.
Brigety’s inflammatory exhortations implied that South Africa might be aiding and abetting Russia in its war efforts against Ukraine, and almost led to his expulsion from SA.
The high-level row, which came at a time when Ramaphosa’s government was still trying to avoid a visit by Russian leader Vladimir Putin to South Africa, was narrowly avoided when Brigety pulled back from what he had said.
