By Daanyaal Matthews

With Russian President Vladmir Putin no longer entering the Republic to attend the BRICS summit many have breathed a sigh of relief especially with President Cyril Ramaphosa stating that arresting the Russian president would be considered a declaration of war.

One organization that has challenged the arrival of the Russian President, due to his actions in the Ukraine conflict, is the Democratic Alliance (DA) who have advocated for the arrest of the President of Russia if he were to enter the Republic.

Speaking on Drive Time on Wednesday afternoon, Werner Horn, National Spokesperson for the DA, detailed the stance of the DA as they welcome the news but also stressed that they were always trying to avoid conflict that could potentially have taken place if the Russian President were to arrested, stating:

“We’ve always held the view that in the circumstances it would be most logical and only reasonable way to go about this would be to arrange that the BRICS summit be held somewhere else where one of the other BRICS partners that is not a member of the ICC and a signatory of the Rome statue host it or that Russia be represented by somebody other than President Putin. That has always been the obvious solution to the possible problem.”

The National Spokesperson for the official opposition has emphasized that the party was not opposed to aligning with the economic bloc, thus accepting the consequences of such association and participation, as they seek to ‘unlock’ economic benefits that the block potentially offers.

“Our official stance is that we must look to unlock whatever economic benefit there could be unlocked for South Africa through participation in these types of forums,” said the Member of Parliament.

Further to this, Sandile Swana, Political Analyst, has envisioned the upcoming BRICS summit to be a discussion on the future of the Global South, and East, in the face of growing pressure from the West which has largely been shown through sanctions and hindering access to financial systems.

“The idea that the Western financial system is a failure is going to be to be discussed, and an alternative is going to be proposed as to how the non-aligned countries, such as the Global South, have their own financial system that cannot be weaponized against them,” said Mr. Swana.

VOC