{"id":100092,"date":"2025-08-26T18:17:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=100092"},"modified":"2025-08-26T18:17:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:17:35","slug":"sas-mediator-role-questioned-amid-russia-ukraine-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/sas-mediator-role-questioned-amid-russia-ukraine-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"SA\u2019s Mediator Role Questioned Amid Russia-Ukraine Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n3-minute read
\n26 August 2025 | 14:45 CAT<\/p>\n

\"\"

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after a meeting in Pretoria, South Africa [Themba Hadebe\/AP]<\/p><\/div>President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s recent engagements with European leaders have reignited debate over South Africa\u2019s stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. While Pretoria maintains it is impartial and committed to dialogue, International Relations Expert Dr Kingsley Makubela warns that South Africa risks becoming a \u201cglorified mediator\u201d without the institutional capacity or credibility to influence outcomes.<\/p>\n

Speaking in a recent discussion with Radio Islam International<\/em><\/a>, Dr Makubela outlined the attributes necessary for a credible mediator: the ability to underwrite the mediation process and to encourage disputing parties to move beyond a win-lose mindset. \u201cSouth Africa is in no way near any role that it can play,\u201d he cautioned, noting that nuclear powers and global heavyweights dominate the conflict, leaving smaller actors like South Africa sidelined.<\/p>\n

Comparisons were drawn to Qatar, a small state that has built an international reputation as a neutral broker. \u201cThe Qataris have developed institutional capacity, they mediated between the Americans and the Taliban, between the Americans and the Iranians, and are now involved between the Israelis and Palestinians,\u201d Dr Makubela explained. South Africa, he argued, once had similar capacity during its mediation efforts in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Somalia and the DRC, but this has since \u201cdisappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makubela further warned of the risks of an inconsistent foreign policy. \u201cWe\u2019re going to end up being isolated within the BRICS family, isolated within the Europeans and the Americans,\u201d he said, pointing to South Africa\u2019s lack of clarity between \u201ccontextual\u201d interventions, creating conducive conditions for talks and \u201csubstantive\u201d interventions that address core disputes. Ukraine leans toward the former, while Russia demands the latter. Without the ability to balance both, South Africa\u2019s role remains marginal.<\/p>\n

Turning to Africa, Makubela stressed that Pretoria\u2019s credibility has historically been anchored in its African agenda, which earned it a seat at the G20. Yet, he argued, \u201cSouth Africa is failing to do that, we couldn\u2019t even sort out a conflict across our border in Mozambique.\u201d He called for renewed focus on resolving African conflicts such as those in Sudan and Cameroon to rebuild continental leadership.<\/p>\n

To revive credibility, Makubela recommended establishing a think tank to guide long-term foreign policy. \u201cIn foreign policy, no one looks after your interests, you look after your interests,\u201d he remarked, urging integration between government and academic institutions to develop expertise and strategic capacity.<\/p>\n

Without such reforms, he warned, South Africa risks \u201cmoving blindly\u201d in an increasingly multipolar world.<\/p>\n

Listen<\/strong> to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up<\/em> with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Dr Kingsley Makubela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za 3-minute read 26 August 2025 | 14:45 CAT President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s recent engagements with European leaders have reignited debate over South Africa\u2019s stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. While Pretoria maintains it is impartial and committed to dialogue, International Relations Expert Dr Kingsley Makubela warns that South Africa risks becoming a \u201cglorified […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":100093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4997],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Ukraine-Russia-War.jpg?fit=630%2C372&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-q2o","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 11:43:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}