Lady R II.

This is coolbert:

From the Internet website "Bayou Renaissance Man" Peter Grant [the nom de plume of the South African expatriate now American citizen] a veteran of the South African Border War his observations and comments the recent visit the Russian flagged merchant vessel Lady R to the South African port of Simonstown.

"Is Russia buying weapons from South Africa?"

January 11, 2023.

"I [Bayou] noted with interest a Wall Street Journal report that a Russian vessel recently spent a couple of days loading cargo at Simonstown, the premier naval port in South Africa."

Read as extracted those comments of Peter Grant the type of armaments if any that might be sent from South African munitions stores to the Russians:

"South Africa used to have a large and sophisticated armaments industry, right through the 1990's.  However, it's fallen into decline since then, and today is not a major factor in the world's arms trade.  I'm not sure it would have much in the way of hi-tech equipment that Russia could use; its indigenous anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles are very different from their Russian equivalents, and it would take considerable effort to train Russian personnel to operate them.  However, South Africa could probably provide artillery and mortar ammunition, and possibly also locally manufactured equivalents of old-model Soviet equipment."

"Given that Russia is reportedly buying hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition from North Korea, it might well have extended its purchasing network to South Africa as well.  Also, given that South Africa is part of the BRICS partnership (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), it would probably be willing to sell military hardware to Russia, perhaps in exchange for things South Africa needs."

Perhaps in this particular instance more than anything else solidarity or mere appearance with the BRICS partnership the greatest concern to the South Africans?

Indeed at least from my perspective this entire affair does seems to be quite peculiar.

coolbert.