President Cyril Ramaphosa is despatching special envoys to the G7 countries and rethinking Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to SA to counter the impression that the country is pro-Moscow.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has embarked on a "course correction", despatching special envoys to the G7 countries to try to counter the damaging impression that South Africa has become pro-Russian.

A growing opinion in the government and the ANC -- which Ramaphosa himself apparently shares -- that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not come to South Africa in August to attend the BRICS summit appears to be part of the same rethink.

A report from the SA Reserve Bank last week that secondary US sanctions could have a "catastrophic" impact on the SA economy, by cutting SA out of the US financial system and triggering a financial crisis, appears to have jolted the government into pre-emptive action to try to persuade the US and other G7 countries that Pretoria does in fact remain non-aligned.

Late in May, Ramaphosa appointed International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor as his special envoy to the G7 specifically to explain the six-president African peace initiative to Russia and Ukraine that he is part of.

The presidents are expected to visit Ukraine and Russia next week. Pandor met her French counterpart and spoke by phone to the German and Italian foreign ministers on 26 May and to British...