The director-general in the Department of International Relations, Zane Dangor, is travelling to Ukraine. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng, Independent Newspapers
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s legal adviser, Nokukhanya Jele, and the director-general in the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, Zane Dangor, will be travelling to Ukraine for peace talks.
Jele and Dangor will be joined by other international partners on the peace talks in Kyiv.
This comes after Ramaphosa led a team of leaders from Africa last year where they met with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg.
Ramaphosa had a follow-up meeting with Putin at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg in July.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also visited South Africa last year where he met with senior officials in the Department of International Relations and Co-operation.
The department said the visit to Ukraine by Jele and Dangor was part of efforts by South Africa to find peace.
“Dangor will be joined by advocate Nokukhanya Jele, legal adviser to president Cyril Ramaphosa. The two will join other international partners in talks with senior Ukrainian officials on Wednesday.
“The visit to Kyiv forms part of a series of high-level engagements by South Africa at the bilateral and multilateral levels and indicates South Africa’s commitment to finding a lasting solution to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict,” said the department.
The conflict began two years ago and the visit to Kyiv comes after Putin won elections in Russia on Monday.
Ramaphosa has said on several occasions it was their firm belief that there must be peace.