SA’S Russia vs Ukraine muddle
Everyone has an opinion but few have all the facts
Ihave to hand it to my fellow South Africans. The amount of hot air generated by the clash between two Eastern European countries is enough to power Eskom and eliminate load-shedding for at least a decade.
It’s been a long time since I’ve noticed our people (as comrades call citizens) so enthralled and engaged by a dispute happening thousands of kilometres away from home. There are no fence sitters when it comes to Russia and Ukraine.
Admirers of Russian president Vladimir Putin brag that their strongman has the interests of the downtrodden at heart and his power play is showing the West the proverbial middle finger. In their eyes, Putin is the T’challa who will rescue our Wakanda from imperialism. Besides, our country is in the Brics alliance with Russia and is bound by those ties to stand with the aggressor.
Putin’s local advocates will quickly give you a history lesson on how Nato and the US destabilised many developing countries.
When Multichoice removed Russia RT from the Dstv bouquet on Wednesday, this gang threatened to cancel their subscriptions in solidarity. I doubt if these Takalani Sesame historians have watched anything but the cartoon channel.
On the other hand, we have other countrymen who are on the side of Ukraine. Though they did not even know the name of that country’s president before the bombs landed in Kiev, they swear that Putin is a murderer who must be stopped. They urge our government to reprimand Russia for invading a sovereign state. I’ve never heard this bunch raise their voice against the jihadist insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province of neighbouring Mozambique. They also dismiss claims of the racist treatment of African students who were denied a passage to leave the smouldering Ukraine.
Stellenbosch University students this week held a demonstration this week to urge our government to act against Russian aggression. They take delight in the propaganda that Ukraine invited the mothers of Russian troops onto the battlefield to collect their sons, in an apparent attempt to embarrass Moscow.
I am by no means suggesting that the standoff between the European countries bears no significance to our fortunes. In a war, the first casualty is the truth, as we saw in Iraq when America invaded Baghdad under false pretence.
Opinions are like buttholes, everybody’s got one. However, I’d like to urge fellow South Africans to blow their steam into the Eskom grid instead of wasting it on choosing sides among European warmongers who can’t finger Medupi on our map.