The old regime in south Africa prior to 1994 was a "western ally". Reagan and Thatcher turned a blind eye to Apartheid (and sometime supported it) because the South African government was "anti-communist", or at least they dressed their oppression in that language of "total onslaught of Soviet communism" and that was more important to the west.

The new regime in south Africa has some nostalgia for the assistance offered to them by the USSR back then, that is why they abstained on the vote on UN resolution against Russian attack on Ukraine.

In some ways it was a proxy war.