SA actively non-aligned in Russia-Ukraine conflict
JOHANNESBURG - National Security Special Advisor Dr Sydney Mufamadi said South Africa remained actively nonaligned as far as the Russia/ Ukraine conflict is concerned.
Dr Mufamadi, who was President Cyril Ramaphosa’s special envoy, led a South African delegation to the United States to address a resolution of the US House of Representatives, calling for a review of America’s relations with South Africa.
Washington continues to take a dim view of countries supporting Russia’s aggression in
Ukraine, saying it would continue to engage on the importance of upholding the United Nations Charter.
Briefing the media on his trip to the US, Dr Mufamadi said non-alignment does not mean South Africa has no view on the war. “To say that we are actively non-aligned does not mean that we do not have a view about wars generally. We are anti-war and we will do everything necessary and possible at all material times to make sure that avoidable wars should be avoided, and we will indeed contribute to ensuring that they are avoided.”
Meanwhile, the African National Congress (ANC) claims that South Africa’s engagement in naval military exercises with Russia in December last year was nothing sinister.
This follows US Ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety’s allegation that South Africa supplied weapons to Russia to use in the war against Ukraine.
The presidency has since disputed the claims, saying it had no knowledge of weapons being loaded onto a Russian ship and that if this had happened it could have been illegal.
LONDON - In Rebekah Vardy’s childhood home there were no birthdays or Christmases, television and books were censored and she was warned that youthful mischief or bad manners would bring down the wrath of God on her. As a Jehovah’s Witness, she could not invite other children back to play, or sing hymns in her school assembly. Modesty was practised to the extent that she went through puberty without being told how her own body worked.
Her life and that of her extended family was governed by all-powerful ‘elders’ who sat in judgment with the right to cast people out of their closed community. Such was the dread of these men that when Rebekah told her mother she had been sexually abused from the age of 12, it was hushed up – for fear, she believes, of bringing shame on the family.
Revealing
Now the wag – the wife of Leicester City star Jamie Vardy, and a mother of five – is revealing this extraordinary and painful part of her past in a Channel 4 documentary. The 41-year-old is taking the role of reporter in front of the camera, interviewing other former Jehovah’s Witnesses and attempting to confront the movement at their £150 million UK headquarters in Essex.
‘‘I call it a cult,’’ she said, speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday. ‘‘People are manipulated, brainwashed, it’s coercive behaviour and it is handed down from generation to generation. Once you’re in it, it’s so hard to see the bigger picture, which is that it’s wrong and immoral.
‘‘I spent my childhood fearful, being told we were going to die in Armageddon if we didn’t pray enough. I felt I had to constantly strive for perfection so that God would not be angry with me.’’