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Rabat – Algeria has once again offered its presidential plane to transport the Polisario leader, Brahim Ghali, to Johannesburg for the swearing-in ceremony of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ghali arrived in Johannesburg’s airport on Friday, May 24, at the invitation of the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, re-elected for a new term, whose swearing-in took place on Saturday.
Ghali was received at the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs by a number of high ranking South African officials including the Director of African Affairs and the Middle East.
On March 25, Algeria made its presidential plane available to transport the Polisario leader to Pretoria to attend a conference of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Despite this move and its financial, political, diplomatic and military support for the Polisario, Algeria keeps claiming that it has no vested interests in the Western Sahara conflict and it seeks only to help the Saharawis to “exercise their right to self-determination.”
Read also: Spain’s Highest Court to Extend Human Rights Abuse Investigation of Polisario Leader
For over a decade, Algeria has forged an anti-Morocco alliance with South Africa to thwart Moroccan efforts to achieve a political solution to the conflict that safeguards Rabat’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is a true supporter of the Polisario Front and claims that he “stands for the struggle of Sahrawi people for freedom and independence.”
Relations between South Africa and Morocco have fluctuated since 2004 when Morocco withdrew their ambassador to South Africa due to South Africa’s Pretoria recognizing the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
