What: A peace­ful protest against South African cul­tur­al coop­er­a­tion with rus­sia. Invit­ing russ­ian per­for­mances to South Africa con­tributes and nor­malis­es the russ­ian vio­lence against Ukrain­ian civil­ians, par­tic­u­lar­ly women and chil­dren

Where: Out­side the Artscape The­atre in Cape Town (D.F. Malan St, Fore­shore, Cape Town, 8001) 

When: 12 until 23 July

We, the Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa, call on the South African Art and Cul­tur­al Insti­tu­tions to imme­di­ate­ly and unequiv­o­cal­ly con­demn russia’s colo­nial war on Ukraine and to stop any cul­tur­al coop­er­a­tion with rus­sia and its artists. We appeal to South African writ­ers, artists, musi­cians and oth­er per­son­al­i­ties to ter­mi­nate all links with russ­ian artists until the russ­ian mil­i­tary forces are with­drawn from the Sov­er­eign ter­ri­to­ry of Ukraine and  Ukrain­ian bor­ders are restored in full. 

Sup­port­ing russ­ian-reg­is­tered bal­let com­pa­nies before rus­sia ends its aggres­sion on the ter­ri­to­ry of Ukraine, finan­cial­ly and direct­ly con­tributes to the dai­ly bomb­ings of Ukrain­ian civil­ians. In addi­tion, sup­port­ing russ­ian bal­let dancers before they open­ly speak out against the russ­ian mil­i­tary aggres­sion means sup­port­ing the tor­ture, rape, and exe­cu­tions of dozens of Ukrain­ian artists.

 

Since 2020, the Swan Lake per­for­mance in South Africa was pre­sent­ed as a prod­uct of St. Peters­burg Bal­let The­atre (SPBT). In 2023 (since the war ini­ti­at­ed by rus­sia on Ukraine’s ter­ri­to­ry), the per­form­ing company’s title was tak­en down and  changed to “A Tru­ly Inter­na­tion­al Com­pa­ny” with “South Africa’s Finest Musi­cians”. Addi­tion­al­ly, Artscape and Computicket’s web pages do list the name of the per­form­ing com­pa­ny. But make no mis­take, the cast of the per­for­mance is the same (Iri­na Kolesniko­va, as Pri­ma Bal­le­ri­na of the SPBT and Mar­gari­ta Avdee­va, as the soloist of the SPBT). The mes­sag­ing from SPBT is the same as well. In order to divert atten­tion from this (and per­haps fool the South African pub­lic), and right before their per­for­mance, the pre­sent­ing com­pa­ny reg­is­tra­tion sud­den­ly changed to an Aus­tralia-based com­pa­ny.

 

Truth remains, that no mat­ter how they posi­tion them­selves now, the St. Peters­burg Bal­let The­atre (SPBT)  is reg­is­tered in rus­sia, pays tax­es to the russ­ian gov­ern­ment and  has a long his­to­ry of coop­er­at­ing with the russ­ian gov­ern­ment and russ­ian mil­i­tary. Nei­ther the com­pa­ny nor any of its bal­let dancers have for­mal­ly con­demned the russ­ian atroc­i­ties in  Ukraine and have not con­demned the killings of Ukrain­ian civil­ians by the russ­ian army.

For 500 days now, Rus­sia has used  cru­el mil­i­tary aggres­sion against the sov­er­eign Ukraine, threat­ened the world with a nuclear attack, and increased hunger and pover­ty on the African con­ti­nent, all in vio­la­tion of the UN Char­ter, Human Rights, Nuclear safe­ty, and all moral and eth­i­cal norms. 

Russ­ian aggres­sion against Ukraine has tar­get­ed Ukrain­ian Iden­ti­ty:

• UNESCO has ver­i­fied dam­age to 260 his­tor­i­cal Ukrain­ian sites
• Over 60 Ukrain­ian bal­let dancers and artists were killed includ­ing the soloist of the Nation­al Opera House of Ukraine, bal­let dancer Olek­san­dr Shapo­val
• Rus­sians tor­tured and exe­cut­ed dozens of Ukrain­ian artists specif­i­cal­ly for hav­ing a pro-Ukrain­ian posi­tion
• 9 the­atres have been delib­er­ate­ly destroyed by the russ­ian army. On March 16, 2022, Rus­sians reduced the The­atre in Mar­i­upol to rub­ble killing as many as 600 peo­ple, women and chil­dren, hid­ing inside.

In the past, Ukraine has sup­port­ed the cul­tur­al boy­cott of Apartheid South Africa and since 1963 offered refuge to hun­dreds of South African free­dom fight­ers. Ukraine played a crit­i­cal role as a chair and deputy chair of the Anti-apartheid UN com­mit­tee. In 1958, the ANC called for the cul­tur­al boy­cott of Apartheid South Africa and in 1980 a boy­cott - ‘A Great Moral and Pos­i­tive Weapon’ was used at the inter­na­tion­al lev­el. The UN Gen­er­al Assem­bly request­ed all states to pre­vent all cul­tur­al, aca­d­e­m­ic, sport­ing, and oth­er exchanges with South Africa, and appealed to writ­ers, artists, musi­cians, and oth­er per­son­al­i­ties to ter­mi­nate all links with South Africa. Ukraine and Ukraini­ans were not silent nor neu­tral at the time of Apartheid.

The con­se­quences of the Russ­ian inva­sion have already hit the most vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple in South Africa with the increased fuel prices, food short­ages, finan­cial insta­bil­i­ties, and the reduc­tion of funds for devel­op­ment. 

The Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa appeals to all SA art and cul­ture com­mu­ni­ties to heed their social respon­si­bil­i­ty, and to stand up against Russ­ian mil­i­tary aggres­sion.

We call on the South African Art and Cul­tur­al Insti­tu­tions to make their voic­es heard and reaf­firm the val­ues of human rights, dig­ni­ty and respect for inter­na­tion­al law, as well as the prin­ci­ple of nation­al sov­er­eign­ty, all  cor­ner­stones of South Africa’s Con­sti­tu­tion. 

 

“If you are neu­tral in sit­u­a­tions of injus­tice, you have cho­sen the side of the oppres­sor.” (Desmond Tutu)

#Stand­For­Free­dom #Stand­WithUkraine #Sto­pRus­sianAg­gres­sion

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact us: 082 722 7231 or 076 735 5501 Kate; or e‑mail to [email protected]. www.uaza.co.za