Bill Browder and Tony Leon argue that money, not morality, dictates South Africa’s support for Vladimir Putin

KING CHARLES III has conferred a signal honour on South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa. He has invited him on a state visit to Britain this month, the first by a foreign leader since the king came to the throne. That is in spite of South Africa’s refusal to condemn Russia’s merciless war in Ukraine. In October the country abstained in a UN vote on a resolution demanding Russia reverse course on its illegal annexations of occupied areas of eastern and southern Ukraine. Just 34 other countries abstained and five voted against the resolution; 143 countries voted in its favour. The youth league of Mr Ramaphosa’s party, the African National Congress (ANC) even sent a delegation to observe the rigged referendums on annexation. It described them as “a beautiful, wonderful process”.

Mr Ramaphosa’s approach to the largest land war in Europe in 70 years is despicable. The war, through surging energy and food costs, has only further impoverished African countries as they import 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, according to the UN. Yet Mr Ramaphosa has refused to criticise Russian aggression and continued to cosy up to the Kremlin. This is entirely inconsistent with South Africa’s proclaimed respect for an international rules-based system, as well as Nelson Mandela’s 1993 promise that human rights will be “the light that guides our foreign affairs”.