After months of silence about the Russian vessel which docked in Simon's Town, the Presidency's solution to the quagmire is an independent inquiry to be led by a retired judge.

The US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, has rocked US relations with South Africa by publicly announcing that the US is "confident" that the South African government uploaded weapons and ammunition on to the Russian cargo ship Lady R in the Simon's Town naval harbour last December.

Brigety told journalists in Pretoria on Thursday that the loading of arms and ammunition for Russia was "fundamentally unacceptable" and contradicted South Africa's professed non-aligned status in Russia's war against Ukraine.

The US ambassador to SA Reuben Brigety says he can bet on his own life that a Russian vessel which docked in Simonstown in December last year had loaded weapons. Brigety made the claims during a media briefing earlier today. @ZiyandaNgcobo was there.https://t.co/B6s9N7Ewcs pic.twitter.com/GwFFXixg0F-- Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) May 11, 2023

Ukraine's ambassador to South Africa, Liubov Abravitova, told Daily Maverick she was requesting an urgent meeting with South Africa's minister of defence and veterans, Thandi Modise, about Brigety's bombshell announcement.

"We are confident that weapons were loaded on to that vessel," Brigety told journalists in Pretoria.

Rand nosedives

His accusation appeared to have pushed the rand to a three-year low against the US dollar at...