Zelenskyy’s SA visit sparks outrage

The country’s official opposition party, the MK Party (MKP) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) took to the streets of Pretoria, slamming Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the country.

The organisations accuse the Ukrainian President of being a Western puppet with blood dripping hands.

MKP National Spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndlhela, believes that Zelenskyy is an illegitimate president who is carrying NATO’s mandate.

Zelenskyy met with President Cyril Ramaphosa today to discuss bilateral matters, including Africa’s peace-keeping operation to resolve the Russian-Ukraine conflict.

According to Ndlhela, Zelenskyy has a neoliberal, imperialist stance against Russia, which his party opposes.

He has urged Ramaphosa to avoid adding unnecessary problems to an already overburdened country, while accusing Zelenskyy of having faked his way into the Ukrainian presidency.

“He is an illegitimate president because he was not elected by the people of Ukraine and by virtue of that, he is carrying a mandate of Nato and he is being used and funded by the West creating instability in Russia,” says Ndlhela.

According to him, Ukraine is a war-mongering country that has killed innocent people while receiving western funding.

The party, which included little over a hundred activists, took its anger over this to the Presidential guest home of Mahlaba Ndlhovu, in Arcadia.

The MK Party Convenor of the party’s Gauteng Youth League called on the President to not involve the public’s tax money in whatever deal he has agreed on with the Ukrainian President.

Denouncing the Ukrainian President as a western puppet, Kotela claims that the western world, which he says despises South Africans, dictates Ukraine’s agenda.

“It is an agenda of the western imperialists that, by the way, has a lot of hate for us South Africans. The only darling of the western imperialists and white monopoly capital in South Africa is the current president we have. Us; the people of South Africa, have nothing to do with imperialists,” states Kotela.

Malaza Skhosana, another member of former President Jacob Zuma’s two-year-old party, believes South Africa has always been an ally of Russia and views Ramaphosa’s meeting with the Ukrainian president as a betrayal to the nation.

“We will not be seen to be taking a posture that seems to be aligning itself with Ukraine, which is aligned to Israel. Ironically, it’s a dichotomy and contradiction that our government has a case in the ICC against Israel, which is supported by Ukraine, yet our President dares to receive the Ukrainian President who lately doesn’t even seem to be appreciated by Donald Trump himself. This put SA’s stance in geo-politics in a very dubious space,” says Skhosana.

He claims Ramaphosa’s leadership at this moment is directionless, dysfunctional, and ineffective.

The EFF in Gauteng was also in the streets, up in arms.

The party’s provincial deputy chairperson, Phillip Makwala, believes Zelenskyy had no right to be in South Africa and should have instead put his focus on seizing fire within the Russia-Ukraine conflict instead.

“We as the EFF have made it clear that we reject Zelenskyy and we are in full support of Putin, the president of Russia. We do not want anything to do with a puppet of the West and America,” says Makwala.

Zelenskyy got on a plane back to Ukraine at his earliest convenience following news that Russia attacked Kiyv last night, claiming at least a dozen lives. Written by Odirile Rabolao