Green energy and other technology intensive industries require dynamic societies with well educated populations. Authoritarian regimes fail in this regard, industries die fast and wealth disappears.
Complex societies can and will produce better technology and creativity than simpler ones. So, authoritarian societies need an easy way to get money or they will be outcompeted by more open ones.
tldr;
Authoritarian -> simple society. Oil -> can be gathered by simple societies.
Social democracy -> complex society -> high-tech.
In reality, many technical and mathematical advances have come out of countries that aren't democracies.
It would be a mistake to think Russia doesn't have highly advanced technical capabilities, for example. It successfully developed nuclear weapons before many democratic societies could have.
As long as they have the billions of dollars to spend buying arms from the West, or selling oil, and any other business they may do together, and any other strategic role SA fulfills now, they will get away with anything.
And let's not kid ourselves. It's not like countries in the West don't imprison without any due process or even torture when it suits them. People spent decades imprisoned and tortured just for having the wrong name. So expecting even some simulated indignation from some of these civilized countries may just be setting yourself up for disappointment. They're actively supporting SA and explicitly some of their actions as a matter of public record.
It's billionaires (in SA, USA, and China (where the Parliament is full of billionaires) vs everyone, not East vs West.