A Tale of Two Apartheids

PRETORIA, South Africa — The year 1948 is known for the adoption of the United Nations’ Universal Charter of Human Rights. But for South Africans, it is remembered as a year of dual dispossession: marking both the institution of apartheid in our country and the declaration of Israel on Palestinian land. This shared anniversary forges a link between the two countries that has endured throughout the past century and into the present day.

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, said in 1997 at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The recognition of our comradeship in the struggle against state repression and injustice has long contributed to the intergenerational and intersectional character of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. This continues to the present day, as a new generation of activists in South Africa have sought to improve linkages between the older generation of South Africans and Palestinians living under the repressive Israeli regime. Access to critical resources such as water, electricity and energy are among the many areas in which contemporary South Africans and Palestinians find common cause.

The South African solidarity movement for Palestine has evolved in the years since a statue of Mandela was erected in Ramallah in the West Bank. At the political level, figures from Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, are leading the charge. The ANC also enjoys the support of partners in the worker’s movement, while academics, students and activists on the ground round out the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), keeping political leadership anchored to the grassroots level.

This multifaceted collective helped drive the South African government’s decision to charge Israel with genocide before the International Court of Justice on Dec. 29, 2023 — a decision that energized the global solidarity movement and put the cause of human liberation above the self-interest of the state. South African activists capitalized on this momentum by intensifying calls for the closure of the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and its consulate in Johannesburg, as well as boycotts of Israeli products, including American companies such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Starbucks. 

Last May, South Africa-Palestine solidarity was reaffirmed and extended during a Global Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine held in Johannesburg. Attended by 480 guests, 180 of whom were internationals, the event brought together student activists and government representatives from Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Palestinian activists implored anti-apartheid stalwarts and the international community to rally a global solidarity network strong enough to break the siege of Gaza. “We are focusing on the decade of liberation for Palestine. The defragmentation of Palestinian people is a priority,” said one Palestinian activist presenting at the May sitting. “This is a moment in the struggle of punctuated equilibrium. Zionism is decomposing due to the collapse of the social contract in Israel.” 

Several months later, on Nov. 28, the South Africa Chapter of the global AAM launched in Pretoria South at the iconic Freedom Park Heritage Site and Museum. Pro-Palestine activists joined stalwarts of the anti-apartheid movement, members of the clergy and government representatives from South Africa and abroad to formulate a constitution that will govern the work of the AAM for Palestine South Africa chapter. Solidarity partners included several Arab ambassadors, the Arab League and comrades from Palestine via the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Department under the Palestine Liberation Organization (which included the general secretary of the PLO). Through these bodies, the chapter consulted widely with a variety of Palestinian organizations and structures within the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Standing before an audience of over 100 South African leaders from the political, trade union and religious sectors, as well as officials from Palestine, Syria, Ireland and elsewhere, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, declared,

Apartheid Israel has for decades acted with impunity and it has done so because of the unfettered protection it enjoys from its allies in the United Nations Security Council, mainly the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It is high time that we transform the United Nations Security Council and remove the power of veto that is consistently being abused to protect and shelter apartheid Israel from prosecution of its war crimes, crimes against humanity and palpable genocide.

The South Africa chapter of the AAM seeks to drive the international agenda from the ground up. Taking a page out of the South African anti-apartheid movement, the collaboration between individuals, academia, NGOs, government and activists on the ground is designed to draw in participation from local citizens and cut across borders. Crucially, some actions will be tied to local issues, such as access to safe drinking water, housing and electricity. This ensures that the AAM resonates with lived experiences of allies on the ground, solidifying local and global solidarity. Roshan Dadoo of the South African Boycott Divestment and Sanctions coalition summarized this position, stating, “acting in solidarity with Palestine is not charity, it’s solidarity with ourselves. Palestine is a litmus test through which people are rediscovering their humanity.”

For all that South Africa has done to support Palestine, there are still some contradictions within the government. Trips to Israel by government officials such as Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie, as well as continued bilateral dealings are a source of tension for pro-Palestine activists in the country. 

At present, South Africa provides Israel with about 15% of its coal exports. This is something activists want to see their government cut once and for all. In 2020, retired Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was forced to publicly apologize for his pro-Israel comments which completely contradicted South Africa’s foreign policy. “We are hoping that at the end we will achieve in Palestine what the anti-apartheid movement was able to achieve in South Africa, to achieve this we have to harass our government against supporting genocide,” Rev. Frank Chikane told the audience in November. 

Participating in the AAM also provides activists the opportunity to sit at one table with ANC stalwarts and hold them accountable. One of the strongest action items to come out of the AAM was the boycott of Israel in international sports and culture. As Mandla Mandela noted, “the biggest pro-Palestine protests in Paris [held] five different rallies in one. This is the solidarity that Palestine has through the Europe-Palestinian network, which we need to link up with the SADC region, the African continent and other resistance formations right across the globe.”

Mandela wants the AAM to prepare a boycott for the upcoming Los Angeles Olympics. “We … call upon all of you to exert pressure on the South African Olympics Committee to ensure that none of our athletes participate in the Los Angeles Olympics if the Zionist apartheid State of Israel’s IDF soldiers will be participating,” he said.    

Such actions are led by activists who were part of the South African Council on Sport, a sports wing of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa that was formed in 1973 and disbanded in 2005. In 2023, activists ran a successful boycott campaign against SA cricket under-19 captain David Teeger, which prevented him from playing a critical match. The initiative involved writing a letter to Cricket SA accusing the board of hiding behind rules to justify a what they call a friendly match between South Africa and Maccabi Tel Aviv. 

Since some of the leaders of the AAM are ANC icons, activists are hopeful that these stalwarts will be able to pressure comrades within the party to ensure its positions fully align with the Palestinian struggle. 

For those outside South Africa, it is important to understand that while the ANC has historically been the leading party in the country, in the 2024 elections, the party lost votes and is now in a power-sharing agreement with opposition parties through a “Government of National Unity.” The composition of the GNU could jeopardize future commitments to the Palestinian cause, as some parties within the GNU, including the lead opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, support Zionism. 

The chairperson of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Martin Jansen, fears that the ANC might blame their partners in government for not acting in accordance with their public commitment as a means to justify capitulation to the U.S. and Israel. Thus far, however, the administration of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has not succumbed to pressures to deter South African support for Palestine, from within or without the country.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent threats to South Africa — cutting off funds under the pretext that its government is unlawfully expropriating land and treating “certain classes” unfairly, removing it from the AGOA trade agreement, which allows South Africa and other African countries tariff-free access to U.S. market — completely took the country by surprise, leaving room for speculation that these threats are retaliation for the country’s actions against Israel at the ICJ, which also implicated the United States as the primary supporter of genocide in Gaza.

Trump’s actions undermine the relatively harmonious relationship that the South African government and Washington built during the post-1994 era. Trump is widely seen as transgressing national sovereignty by interfering in South Africa’s domestic policy and constitutional development. “We will not be deterred,” Ramaphosa said. “We are as South Africans a resilient people, and we will not be bullied.”   

U.S. bullying tactics are probably intended to force South Africa to weigh its support for Palestine against its own economic interests. To put more pressure on Pretoria, the United States has withdrawn its participation in the upcoming G20 Summit to be hosted by South Africa this year. The renewal of AGOA slated for September is also threatened, with dire implications for other countries, such as Namibia, who are party to AGOA and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. 

In 2024, Namibian activists within the Pan African Palestine Solidarity Network combined efforts with the SA BDS Coalition through the “block the boat/energy embargo” campaign to track and sabotage ships carrying weapons to Israel across the continent. This entailed alerting the Namibian government and port authorities to block weapon-carrying vessels from docking on their shores.

“Such efforts made it harder for these weapons to reach Israel and put pressure for countries to end complicity as obliged by International law,” says University of Johannesburg professor Salim Vally. “We now need to ensure our government responds in a similar way and refuses docking permits to Israeli ships, those suspected of carrying weapons and trading coal to fuel the genocide.”  

In December, a group of leaders and organizations held a conference to map out the next steps, based on a set of working groups and a draft constitution. Those were expected to be finalized at a meeting last month.