>

I lived there. It's a shithole.
Don't let the nice resorts and game farms fool you. There's the Corpo class who gets completely privatised services and then there's everyone else, who are lucky if they get electricity when they'd actually be home.
There is nothing South Africa can offer Russia other than empty words. 
We don't have electricity, hardly any potable water and the majority of the population can't do basic maths. >

A nice naval port if they do enough. >

How would a Russian war ship get to a naval port in South Africa? >

Talk about getting on board of a sinking ship.  Really a stupid move South Africa. >

Corruption plain and simple. >

Ok, looks like I’m quitting my planned visit. Shame. >

Botswana and Namibia are cool, though. >

I sense some sarcasm lol. >

No, they're actually cool. >

Good to know, thx. As a German I should probably pick Namibia ;) >

There is a place that has a bar inside the trunk of a tree. >

Sounds good :) >

What does Russia give them in return? This makes no sense. Has someone been bribed? >

South Africa is having an energy/electricity crisis and has a plan to import cheap LNG from Russia. >

Germany did it in 7 months. So I guess a terminal is set up quick >

Germany is a 1st world country that set out to do it and made sure it got done. 
South Africa is a 3rd world shithole with an incredible amount of corruption >

While I wouldn't call it a shithole, I do agree with the incredible amount of corruption.