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Pegasus spying scandal: Rwanda targeted South Africa’s Ramaphosa

By Carien du Plessis

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Posted on July 23, 2021 07:16

2019 World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos © Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, 24 January 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, 24 January 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

South Africa has publicly expressed its displeasure about reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s phone was placed on a list by Rwanda to be targeted by Israeli-manufactured Pegasus spyware. But privately, officials are baffled and somewhat less outspoken, as the revelations came at a time when the two countries have been trying to restore relations.

“I don’t know whether to believe it or not,” a senior government official working in foreign relations tells The Africa Report.

Rwanda’s foreign minister Vincent Biruta met with South Africa’s foreign minister Naledi Pandor in Pretoria a month ago to set out a road map to strengthen relations and to cooperate on regional and international matters.

The visit came ahead of Rwanda’s deployment of troops to Mozambique’s troubled northern Cabo Delgado Province to assist with security, a move that South Africa and some of its neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) were initially uncomfortable with.

Target list

The alleged targeting of Ramaphosa’s phone was revealed in a report dated November 2019, almost two years after the newly appointed Ramaphosa was warmly received by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame during a visit to Kigali, where the two met on the sidelines of an

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