South Africa says inquiry finds no evidence of arms shipment to Russia

“We’ve investigated ourselves, and found we did nothing wrong”

”No permit was issued for the export of arms and no arms were exported."

I'm fairly confident they're playing word games here and if they're found out they'll claim some narrow definition of "arms" (those are bullets, not arms!), or say they only shipped peaceful items from the dual-use lists and it's not their fault if Russia decided to give "military-grade construction helmets" and night-vision goggles and demolition materiel to their troops ....

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The panel rejected claims made by the US ambassador to South Africa that a Russian ship was loaded with ammunition and arms in Cape Town last December.

"The panel found that there was no evidence to support the claim that the ship transported weapons from South Africa destined for Russia," the president said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Pretoria said the US appreciated the seriousness with which South Africa had investigated the claims but declined to comment on the report's contents.

Writing on social media after the meeting, Mr Brigety said he was "grateful for the opportunity to... correct any misimpressions left by my public remarks".

"None of the persons who made these allegations could provide any evidence to support the claims that had been levelled against our country," Mr Ramaphosa said following the inquiry's conclusion.

South Africa has sought to maintain friendly relations with Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, drawing criticism from the US and other Western nations.

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