The International Relations Department has confirmed that the US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety has apologized for alleging that the country sold weapons to Russia to use in the war against Ukraine. On Thursday Brigety told local media that US intelligence was confident that arms and ammunition had been loaded onto a Russian ship near Cape Town in December last year. Dirco spokesperson, Clayson Monyela has confirmed the US ambassador's apology.  Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has confirmed that he has spoken to his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor telephonically. A short State Department statement has under-scored the importance of the US-South African strategic partnership. The Presidency has said the government has undertaken to set up an "independent enquiry to be led by a retired judge into the Russian ammunition accusations. We spoke to Guy Martin, editor of DefenceWeb, an online African Defence and Security news publication AND Prof. Waldo Krugell from the School of Economics at North West University