President Cyril Ramaphosa will not release the Madlanga interim report to the public, but only the full report once available next year. This was revealed by the presidency spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, during a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday.Magwenya’s comments come as Ramaphosa will on Wednesday, receive an interim report from the commission chairperson, retired Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.“The commission will advise the president on areas that are of national security sensitivity, and how those areas will need to be managed.
However, the interim report, will not be made available to the public. The reason is that some of the witnesses that have come before the commission, are going to be called back again, to continue with their evidence. Some had evidence located in certain specific areas, but not as broad as it was meant to be.So those witnesses are still going to be given a chance to return to the commission and give that evidence,” said Magwenya.
Magwenya highlighted that it’ll be a fruitless exercise for the interim report to be released to the public, and its contents debated about something “half-baked.” Furthermore, he said the president will use the report to familiarise himself with the daily commission hearings, as he had not had the time to follow the hearings daily. Regarding South Africa’s exclusion from the G20 Leaders’ Summit and G20 processes in the US, Magwenya, said it is unfortunate that the US took a unilateral decision, without consulting other member countries. The spokesperson says it is South Africa’s assertion that it does not need to be invited to G20 meetings.
“We are a full member of the G20, and a founding member. What the US is seeking to do, is an afront to multilateralism, and it must be challenged and it must be rejected by all members of the G20.We have been engaging all other members of the G20 on this matter.We have encouraged members to express quite strongly their own views as they have expressed to us their support, as well as their rejection of the US position and decision in this regard which was taken unilaterally in a body that takes decision through consensus,” explained Magwenya. In addition, Magwenya said It’ll not be helpful to ask countries to boycott G20 meetings and processes, following Washington’ stance against Pretoria.
“We were against the US boycott; we would not promote any form of boycott. However, we would continue to advocate for the ongoing championing of the issues that were strongly surfaced during the Johannesburg Summit.So that those issues remain firmly on the G20 agenda, whether the US approves of those issues or not, they’re important not only to us as a country and as a continent, but to the rest of the world,” explained Magwenya. He says some of the issues includes inequality, how to deal with poverty, climate change, among others, which cannot be confined to just a single year presidency. Meanwhile, Magwenya has assured the nation that efforts are underway to return about 17 young South Africans trapped in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, adding that it remains a very sensitive process.
“They’re in a dangerous environment, facing grave danger to their lives. We are still in discussions with various authorities, both in Russia and Ukraine, to see how we can free them from the situation that they are in. The information that we have is that they were bungled into the Russian military forces,” remarked Magwenya. He stressed that the retrieval of the men, remains an issue of “priority for the government as well as the president and receiving the highest possible attention in the government.”
