The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has separately held discussion with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky over a potential peace plan.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have agreed to receive a mission from the African leaders and will welcome the group.
Ramaphosa told a news conference on Tuesday morning, “My discussions with the two leaders demonstrated that they are both ready to receive the African leaders and to have discussion on how this conflict can be brought to an end.
“Whether that will succeed or not is going to depend on the discussions that will be held.”
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This comes after the commander of South Africa’s ground forces visited Moscow in a planned trip and held talks with counterparts.
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Monday that the meeting was “planned well in advance.”
SANDF added that the meeting was part of a “a long-standing arrangement” which was a “goodwill visit” after the Russian army invited them to Moscow.
Last Thursday the US said that they are confident South Africa supplied weapons to Moscow as a Russian ship which is under American sanctions left Simon’s Town base, near to Cape Town in December in 2022.
The US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety suggested that transfer of weapons is not in line with Pretoria being neutral in Putin’s war in Ukraine.
South Africa’s Communications Minister Mondli Gungubele said, “We didn’t approve any arms to Russia … it wasn’t sanctioned or approved by us.”
South Africa also conducted naval drills with Russia and China and Pretoria is one of Moscow’s important allies.
