Ramaphosa condemns US actions in Venezuela, calls for Maduro’s release

AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) president Cyril Ramaphosa has strongly condemned the United States' actions in Venezuela, saying South Africa "utterly rejects" Washington's conduct and calls for immediate release of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

- SIMON MAJADIBODU [e-mail]

Speaking at the 31st annual Joe Slovo commemoration held at Avalon Cemetery in Soweto yesterday, Ramaphosa said South Africa demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, following their detention by US forces.

Joe Slovo, a former housing minister and commander of the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, died on January 6, 1995.

Ramaphosa praised Slovo as an internationalist who fought not only for the liberation of South Africans, but for oppressed people across the continent and the world.

"He did not only fight for the liberation of the people of South Africa, but for the people of our continent and for people across the world" Ramaphosa said.

He said Slovo's principles continued to guide the ANC's international outlook.

"It is this principle that continues to guide our international work, inspired by the views, the principles and the positions that comrade Joe Slovo took," he said.

Ramaphosa said this informed South Africa's solidarity with the people of Palestine, Western Sahara and Cuba, and with all communities denied their right to self-determination.

"The principle guides our support for the United Nations Charter and the need for international law as a foundation for relations between nations," he said.

He said South Africa had stood firm with the people of Gaza amid what he described as a "genocidal onslaught" causing widespread suffering and death, and with the people of Sudan as civil conflict continued to drive mass displacement and loss of life.