SA’s obsession with Israel – a case of pure hypocrisy

You would think that a country that had experienced the horrors of apartheid like South Africa has would be a little bit more knowledgeable about what genocide is. Sadly, South Africa under the African National Congress (ANC) has become a failed state.

The South African government is obsessively condemning Israel while eating with and bedding some of the world’s most horrific dictators, including Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, and Iran. This is in spite of regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran actively practicing gender apartheid and Iran’s values fundamentally contradicting the South African Constitution. Nevertheless, the ANC has close ties with it.

Even when Iranians were on the streets protesting when women were being shot in the eyes, in prison, and tortured by the regime, the ANC government invited Iran President Ebrahim Raisi to South Africa. Is this how the ANC views women’s rights?

It’s not surprising, given the fact that under the ANC, South Africa become one of the most dangerous countries for women in the world, leading the entire world rating in rape, in its astronomical number of domestic violence incidents, and general violent crime.

But while the ANC is busy smearing Israel, it is failing its own people. It can’t keep the lights on in the country, with daily nationwide rolling blackouts. South Africa has a life expectancy that’s lower than the Palestinians. It has been dubbed the headquarters for terrorist financing for Africa, which resulted in the country being greylisted for failure to adhere to tariff-finance laws, and the government has repeatedly welcomed Hamas terrorists and uses South African tax revenue to fund the Palestinian embassy in South Africa.

After the 7 October massacre, the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, concluded on 22 October her one-day visit to Tehran. During the Minister’s visit, she met Raisi. Pandor also met terrorist leaders and even spoke to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The ANC doesn’t care for the people of South Africa, it only care for its own pockets. The ANC doesn’t wish to follow the West with its good governance, because its corruption would be exposed.

Even when Israel has offered to help South Africa deal with internal food scarcity and agriculture issues, the ANC has spoken out against it. It was also the ANC that led the campaign against Israel’s observer status in the African Union, even though Israel has done tremendous work to assist many African nations with development and agricultural technology. This instead of condemning Hamas for sexual violence, torture, murder, and kidnapping, all according to the genocidal Hamas charter.

And the ANC is accusing Israel of genocide?

The South African government’s obsession with Israel and support for terror is pure self-sabotage. It’s a violation of the South African Constitution itself, and the ANC’s extremism has turned a democratic nation into a supporter of terror and dictatorships. South Africans deserve better.

• Daniel Yakcobi is the chief operations officer of the SA – Israel Chamber of Commerce.