Under cover of darkness
Lady R controversy report
SOUTH AFRICA: The controversy surrounding the docking of the Lady R and its cargo came to head with the finalisation of an investigation into the matter which confirmed that sensitive cargo was offloaded “under cover of darkness” so that it could be packaged into containers to mitigate any security risks.
The report also confirmed that the vessel and those who assisted it contravened a number of provisions that relate to commercial vessels docking at South African ports.
After many months of pointed questions as to why the Russian ship, the Lady R, docked at the Simon’s Town Naval base instead at one of the commercial ports, President Cyril Ramaphosa finally addressed the subject in an address to the nation on Sunday.
The cargo vessel docked between 6 and 9 December last year causing much controversy as to whether South Africa had supplied weapons. Facing ongoing questions in parliament relating to the nature of the visit, the president appointed a panel in May this year to investigate the matter. Chaired by Judge Phineas Mojapelo, the team also included Adv Leah Gcabashe SC and Enver Surty.
Members of parliament, however, continued to probe the Department of Defence, the Presidency and even the Finance Ministry for answers on how the incident had impacted the country’s reputation and currency.
Ramaphosa, who delayed his address due to the tragic fire in Johannesburg last week, relayed some of the key findings of the report on Sunday, but noted that the full report would not be made public.
“Given the fact that the evidence given to the panel was classified and the fact that revealing the details of the equipment offloaded could jeopardise the work and safety of South Africa’s forces in various deployments on the continent, I have decided not to release the report,” he said adding that revealing details of the equipment that was offloaded would compromise important military operations and put soldiers’ lives at risk.
According to Ramaphosa, the panel did not find any evidence of criminal conduct by any persons, but did make recommendations with respect to the functioning of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee.
“When all matters are considered, none of the allegations made about the supply of weapons to Russia have been proven to be true, and none of the persons who made these allegations could provide any evidence to support the claims that had been levelled against our country,” he said.
The cargo, which was delivered by the Lady R, had been severely delayed due to the impact of COVID-19 as well as the Russian/Ukraine conflict. According to the executive summary of the report, the fact that the vessel was under US sanctions was only discovered by Armscor and AB Logistics after the ship had already set sail asn was on route.
The report notes, however, that these sanctions had not been endorsed by the United Nations and were, therefore, not binding on South Africa.
These sanctions did, however, result in the Lady R being turned away from Ngqura and the Port of Port Elizabeth where she was initially due to be offloaded.
“In order to rescue the situation, the SANDF, in collaboration with Armscor and the supplier decided and directed the ship to dock at Simon's Town, where the goods/equipment were offloaded,” reads the report.
Under cover of darkness
Without revealing the actual cargo, the report does highlight that it had to be offloaded “under cover of darkness”. The investigating team has accepted this explanation and confirmed that the nature of the cargo was divulged to them.
According to the report, the equipment that was shipped on board the Lady R had not been properly containerised. Armscor arranged for empty containers to be brought into the port so that pallets from the ship could be loaded into them.
There was, however, not sufficient time on the first night to conclude this operation and all pallets that had been offloaded to the quayside had to be re-stowed on board the Lady R until the following night.
“This was done because leaving the pallets on the quay / dockside during daylight was a security risk; furthermore, the nature of the equipment would be visible to anyone with sight of the dock.”
The panel was informed that, as a result of the urgent circumstances and the tracking of the vessel by foreign intelligence agencies, the vessel switched off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder. 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.
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