Why South Africa should reconsider hosting Zelensky

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky’s scheduled official state visit to South Africa next week is fraught with huge geopolitical repercussions for Pretoria.

- ABBEY MAKOE

Since the announcement in recent times that Zelensky would be landing on our shores on April 24, I've been grappling with the wisdom behind his visit.

In all honesty, and without a shred of bias, I could find no good reason, or logic, behind President Cyril Ramaphosa’s preparedness to lay the red carpet for his beleaguered counterpart.

Now, before emotions get the better of anyone, it is vital to analyse South Africa’s foreign policy of non-alignment.

At face value, non-alignment would mean that in any situation in global relations, Pretoria takes no sides. Additionally, Pretoria holds very sacred the country's sense of sovereignty that guarantees the country's independence of thought and freedom of association.

However, as is the reality, in diplomacy some things are more important when kept unsaid than those unarticulated. Granted, South Africa’s sovereignty is sacrosanct, but bilateral relations and multilateralism are important cornerstones in how states are viewed by the rest of the international community.

Zelensky visits South Africa at a time when his pop-star-like status is waning in the West. The Trump administration, the new sheriff is town, has undone every aspect of their predecessor’s limitless material support for Zelensky.

Europe is currently grappling with maintaining the early days unwavering support for Ukraine, which was on the back of Washington.

In a constantly changing geopolitical landscape, Ukraine finds itself no longer the darling of the West. The US under Trump has cut aid to Kyiv to the bare minimum, and also withdrawn the diplomatic insulation from harm for the Zelensky administration.