Board takes ANC to task for excluding SA Jewry

In a significant moment for the South African Jewish community, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has laid a complaint against the African National Congress (ANC) about the community’s exclusion from national interfaith events.

This is possibly the first time that a complaint against the ANC has been lodged at the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission), a constitutional body tasked with the promotion and protection of the rights of cultural, religious, and linguistic communities.

“The South African Jewish community has always stood proudly as citizens of this country and as an intrinsic part of our rich multicultural tapestry,” said the SAJBD in a statement released on 22 July. “Our community has engaged in active citizenship, and has valued the comradeship we have across all sectors of our country. We have always played an integral role in interfaith and social-cohesion events and initiatives, including with the ANC.

“Sadly, this year, the Jewish community was systematically and repeatedly excluded from events hosted by the ANC, including national prayers and interfaith events,” the statement continues. “In addition to this, the Jewish community has been treated with expedience by the ANC for its political machinations.

“At the inception of the Government of National Unity [GNU], which is designed to incorporate the diverse voices of South African society, we intend to ensure that our Jewish community is reinstated as a vital part of this national unity. For this reason, the SAJBD has lodged a formal complaint at the CRL.”

The complaint deals with four incidents in which the Jewish community was excluded or discriminated against at the hands of the ANC. These included Jewish communal leadership’s exclusion from a government interfaith engagement in the Western Cape on 3 May; the Jewish community being the only faith community left out of the ANC interfaith “day of prayer” on 19 May; and the ANC boycotting the SAJBD pre-election debate because it was held at the South African Jewish Museum, on 19 May. Finally, for the first time since the dawn of South African democracy, the Jewish community wasn’t invited to give a prayer alongside other faith groups at the ANC’s final pre-election rally on 26 May.

“As a longstanding cultural and religious community, the democratically elected representatives of South African Jewry reject and challenge the treatment we have received from the ANC,” the Board’s statement reads. “We believe that this case at the CRL Rights Commission will ensure that no community, regardless of size or political influence, will have its rights infringed upon and used as a political tool.”

SAJBD President Zev Krengel said it decided to lodge the complaint following incidents that arose “that we found deeply concerning, the last of which occurred just before the elections. For logistical reasons, including the CRL Rights Commission’s recent conference, we were able to meet with the chief executive of the CRL only recently to discuss this situation, and the complaint was submitted thereafter. The decision to raise this with the CRL wasn’t taken lightly, and was the result of much engagement.”

He said lodging a formal complaint with the CRL was decided as the best approach because “our Constitution was designed for all South Africans to live together, irrespective of their diverse views and backgrounds, and was carefully constructed for this purpose. The pillars of this Constitution are the Chapter 9 bodies that were established to protect and promote these pivotal values and principles. If any South African feels excluded from the fabric of society, they are encouraged to use these Chapter 9 bodies for a remedy.

“The primary mandate of the CRL Rights Commission is to uphold the cultural, religious, and linguistic rights of South Africans. As a religious and cultural community which was excluded from religious and cultural cohesion events, we believe that in order to address our exclusion by the ANC constructively, this constitutional body is the most appropriate forum.

“We would like the outcome to be a strong message that even in disagreement, South Africans should still be able to sit around the table and work together,” he said. “All political parties, and all facets of society should adhere to the basic tenets of our Constitution to live together irrespective of our different political, religious, and other views. No community in South Africa should be excluded in the way that South African Jewry has been excluded by the ANC in past months.”

The SAJBD had engaged with the ANC on the issue, he said. “We wrote to the deputy president’s office on 3 May regarding our exclusion from the interfaith event on that same day, and were assured that it was ‘looking into the matter and the reasons for the exclusion of leaders from the Jewish community’,” said Krengel. “In spite of assurances that it would revert once it had determined the facts, to date we’ve still not heard from it.”

In addition, “our Cape office engaged extensively with the ANC Western Cape office with regards to the cancellation of its participation in a pre-election debate because it was at a Jewish community venue, but the ANC still boycotted the event.”

To the community, he said, “The SAJBD will continue to defend and uphold the rights of Jewish South Africans, as it has done for 121 years. Over the past 30 years of our democracy, we have been privileged to have Chapter 9 institutions that assist cultural, religious, and linguistic communities where there has been a breach of constitutional rights. We do this at a time when South Africans are uniting in a GNU. All South Africans have a right to be included and live in dignity in our country, and we’re embarking on this process in this light.”

CRL Communications Manager Mpiyakhe Mkholo told the SA Jewish Report, “The CRL Rights Commission has received the complaint from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. Our investigations and conflict resolution unit will look into it and engage/respond to the complainant accordingly. The complaint is still undergoing our internal processes.”

ANC acting spokesperson, Zuko Godlimpi told the SA Jewish Report that “The ANC has never and will never target any religious group or community for deliberate exclusion. We have no such policy. Our approach has always been to take the lead in nation building and forging a common South African-hood that embraces virtually all of our people regardless of religious creed, race, ethnicity, or political beliefs.”