The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) says South Africa’s position on Gaza appeared to have been “watered down since the elections”.
The PSC was reacting to a response by Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni during a question-and-answer session in Parliament this week about actions against citizens joining the Israel Defence Forces, among other issues.
Earlier this year, South Africa approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to intervene in Gaza, seeking an order “for further provisional measures to prevent Israel from causing irreparable harm to the rights invoked by South Africa under the 1948 Genocide Convention in respect of the ongoing siege of Gaza”.
“The International Court of Justice has found Israel to be responsible for apartheid policies.
“The UN declared Israel an apartheid state in June 2024. South Africa signed the international Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. During apartheid South Africa, our freedom fighters and liberation movements were branded terrorists and many were put on trial for terrorism, among other charges.
“What steps is the State Security Agency taking against Zionist South Africans who financially support acts of terrorism against Palestinians and those who joined the Israel Defence Forces to perpetrate acts of terrorism in occupied Palestine?” asked Al Jama-ah MP Shameemah Salie.
“On the question of terrorism and the designation and classification of terrorism there are two factors, the first one is that South Africa is a signatory to the relevant UN conventions, therefore the designation of terrorist organisation and terrorists is in line with the UN Convention, including our own framework for the operational framework that we use,” Ntshavheni responded.
“We are not responding to any designation by any other country except what South Africa has determined in line with the UN and in terms of that work, everyone who violates and qualifies to be designated in terms of the UN framework and the South African operational framework as a terrorist will be deemed as such and will be treated as such and the money flows are going to be blocked as such.”
The PSC’s Usuf Chikte said the country’s position appeared to have been “watered down since the elections” and there was a “dissonance, between South Africa’s case at the ICJ and the application of its domestic laws”.
“What they say and what they do, there’s a big discrepancy between the two. They must enforce the law and the application of South Africa’s legislation must be within the rule of law. It seems as if there’s a reluctance to investigate and prosecute clear examples of incitement to terror, war crimes, crime of apartheid, genocide of those who aid and abetted from the ranks of Zionist entities,” Chikte said.
“The presidency must ensure that the call for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and the closure of its embassy in line with what Parliament decided last year already (is fulfilled).”
Cape Times