Lawyers urge US to probe ANC’s windfall

The mystery surrounding the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) sudden financial turnaround may eventually unravel amid serious corruption allegations linked to Iran. These have been made by a group of international lawyers who are pressing United States (US) authorities to investigate the party’s highest leadership, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, for bribery and corruption.

In a dramatic appeal, the group of 160 lawyers from several countries, led by the Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin), on 15 May called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the justice department, and congressional leaders to investigate top ANC officials including Ramaphosa and minister of the department of international relations and cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor. Included among those mentioned are ANC Deputy President Paul Mashatile; National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe; Secretary General Fikile Mbalula; Deputy Secretary General Nomvula Mokonyane; Minister in the Presidency Maropene Ramokgopa; and Treasurer-General Gwen Ramokgopa.

If an investigation goes ahead, it could reveal how the ANC’s financial fortunes suddenly turned around, and whether the party’s support for Hamas, a stark departure from Nelson Mandela’s legacy, is rooted in corruption.

The Israeli civil-rights organisation said leaders of the cash-strapped and debt-ridden ANC should be investigated for alleged illicit complicity with Iran in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Israel. South Africa has accused Israel of genocide for its military operation in Gaza against Hamas. Israel has rejected the accusation as “baseless”, and says South Africa is acting as an emissary of Hamas, which seeks to eliminate the Jewish state.

It’s no secret that the ANC has strong ties with Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation.

Israeli attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the founder and president of Shurat HaDin, told the SA Jewish Report this week, “If South Africa wants to bash Israel, it will have to deal with the consequences.

“South Africa decided to serve as the legal arm of Hamas, and has joined Hamas in its fight against Israel, and so we’ll fight South Africa. We have lawyers from around the world involved in this,” she said.

The lawyers have called upon American authorities to investigate the ANC leaders under the Magnitsky Act for participating “in acts of significant corruption involving bribery”.

The Magnitsky Act, passed in 2012, allows for the imposition of government sanctions against foreign individuals who have committed human rights abuses or have been involved in significant corruption. Such sanctions may include the freezing of perpetrators’ assets, and may also limit their travel internationally.

In their letter, they allege that officials accepted bribes from Iran which were intended to cover ANC debts in return for which party members agreed to pursue the case in the ICJ blaming Israel for committing genocide in Gaza.

According to the letter, “There’s reliable information that the ANC leadership has participated in acts of significant corruption involving bribery. Specifically, the ANC leadership has allegedly accepted funds from Iran to support the ANC party in exchange for serving as a diplomatic proxy for Iran against Israel. This reprehensible behaviour attacks Israel, America’s closest Middle East ally, violates principles of international law, undermines efforts towards peace and stability in the region, and directly opposes the interests of the United States.”

The letter outlines a timeline that raises more questions than answers and warrants a thorough investigation, the lawyers urge.

It draws attention to a series of events that began in October 2023, shortly after the outbreak of the war, when Pandor travelled to Tehran to meet with the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash this week, to discuss the Israel-Hamas war. Less than two months later in December, South Africa filed the complaint against Israel at the ICJ. In January, in spite of well-known crippling financial difficulties within the ANC, the party surprisingly announced that its finances had been stabilised.

The ANC has over the years had severe financial troubles as it struggled to meet its financial obligations to staff and creditors. In 2021 and 2022, under the leadership of then Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile, its staff held regular protests at its headquarters, Luthuli House, because of unpaid salaries, unemployment insurance, and pension contributions.

However, ANC Treasurer-General Gwen Ramokgopa has recently defended the party’s financial status, saying that the party had made “significant strides to stabilise our balance sheet, paying off a lot of historical debt, and successfully funding the operational costs and programmes of the ANC”.

“This change of economic fortune coincided with the South African government’s lodging a complaint at the ICJ,” the lawyers wrote. “This sequence of events strongly suggests that the ANC party’s financial woes were resolved by Iran as a quid pro quo for South Africa’s anti-Israel complaint,” and that the ANC leadership had engaged “in the corrupt practice of accepting a bribe from Iran in exchange for serving as a diplomatic proxy for Iran against Israel, which constitutes a violation of the relevant articles in the Magnitsky Act”.

“We have information indicating that this is more than just coincidence, and it needs to be investigated,” Darshan-Leitner told the SA Jewish Report.

In a press statement, she said, “We’re now lifting the veil on the slanderous genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa, which turns out to be nothing more than a paid puppet of the Iranian regime.

“The cynical and political use of one of the most important international conventions, which was inspired by the Jewish Holocaust, by antisemites and corrupt officials who are led by pure greed, cannot – and must not – remain unanswered.”

Darshan-Leitner has been lauded as a pioneer in the judicial battle against terrorism, using courts around the world to fight terrorism. Shurat HaDin has represented victims of terrorism and their families in legal actions against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, Islamic Jihad, and against countries like Iran, North Korea, and Syria. It has successfully frozen millions of dollars in terrorist assets.

The more than 160 lawyers who signed the letter have urged the White House, attorney general, and US Congress to “investigate how the ANC mysteriously got out of debt; what deal was made with Iran; and why the ANC government is so driven to support Hamas, a radical Islamic terrorist group whose violence and antisemitism goes against everything the late ANC leader Nelson Mandela stood for.”