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The African National Congress’ Youth League (ANCYL) has committed a serious breach of international law by sending "observers" to witness a series of Russian referendums to somehow give legitimacy to the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory by the Russian military.

In doing so, the ANCYL is not only lending official credibility to these sham polls, but seemingly carrying the full weight and backing of South Africa’s governing party, giving a blank cheque to other pariah nations and governments to annex whatever territory they please, knowing they will have the support of the ANC-led South African government.

This is both a flagrant disregard for international law, and a violation of South Africa’s very own constitution. It is also in direct conflict with the ANC-led national government’s official response to the conflict which states that South Africa is non-aligned, and supports dialogue to resolve what is nothing more than a Russian attack on the sovereignty of a neighbouring country.

The DA is calling on the ANC to clearly state who paid for the trip of the ANC Youth League members to "observe" the voting in polling stations in the Ukranian territories that the Russian military has conquered.

There are three possible answers - all three equally egregious:

1. The Russians paid, meaning that the ANC will willingly flout international law and South African constitutionalism to be bought as Russian puppets;

2. The ANC paid, meaning that the governing party will fork out hundreds of thousands to observe sham referendums in Europe while their staff remain unpaid; or

3. The South Africa taxpayer paid, meaning that the ANC is abusing state resources to embark on international trips which are in direct violation of the state foreign policy.

South Africans have the right to know who funded this trip that is widely regarded as a complete sham and a legitimisation of Russia's forceful and bloody invasion of Ukraine.

If the ANC does not come clean and reveal who funded this trip, the DA will launch our own investigation to get the facts. We cannot allow the ANC to bulldoze through the Constitution and our international commitments to turn South Africa into a global pariah state.

Issued by Darren Bergman MP - DA Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation