Security: Gov’t reassures Jewish community

VANESSA VALKIN

Their chance came last week when SAJBD President Zev Krengel and Chairman Mary Kluk, got to meet with new State Security Minister David Mahlobo who took over the post when President Jacob Zuma was re-elected last May, as well as with his deputy, Minister Ellen Molekane.

After incidents like the Hyper Cacher supermarket killings in Paris and the murder of a Jewish security guard outside a synagogue in Copenhagen, the Board wanted to ensure that the South African government fully understood the real threat of Islamic fundamentalism and the possibilities of terror cells within South Africa, said Krengel.

“We currently don’t have knowledge of an increased threat to the Jewish community, but we know, due to the increased terrorist attacks on Jewish communities in the world, that we have to increase our level of security,” Krengel told the Jewish Report.

The Board said they were very reassured after their discussions that the government’s intelligence units were being hyper-vigilant.

“The South African government has taken cognisance of the fact that there are increased threats and they are doing everything to protect the community. They understand the seriousness of the situation and they know the dangers.”

Meetings were also held last week with Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe, Minister of Women Susan Shabangu, and Minister of Justice Michael Masutha. Some of them were attended by Canadian Member of Parliament and former Canadian Minister of Justice Professor Irwin Cotler, who was in South Africa as a guest of the Zionist Federation Conference. 

Having Professor Cotler there for the meeting with Justice Minister Masutha was very positive, the Board said, in that it allowed for fruitful intercourse on lessons learnt by an older democracy like Canada and a very new one, South Africa.

Discussions centred on topics ranging from how judges get selected, to issues of hate speech and at what stage in a complaint of discrimination does the Board give up on attempting to negotiate and reconcile, and seek justice.

In the meetings with Minister Radebe, who as Minister for Planning, Performance, Monitoring, Evaluation and Administration, essentially oversees the other ministers, the Board’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was discussed. In the meetings, which included Cotler, the Board reiterated the South African Jewish community’s support for the SA government’s role in helping the peace process and Radebe himself expressed a recommitment by government to help on this path.

In July last year, at the height of Operation Protective Edge, Zuma appointed Zola Skweyiya and Aziz Pahad as envoys to the Middle East to call for a ceasefire. The two have since tried to remain engaged.

In November last year PA President Mahmoud Abbas visited South Africa and at the time Zuma and Abbas signed an agreement for the establishment of a joint commission of co-operation and a memorandum of understanding on political consultations that would see the two governments meeting regularly to exchange views on political matters. It also focused on ways the ANC government could play a role “in supporting the struggle of the Palestinian people”.

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According to Krengel, Cotler also asked in their meetings that Radebe and various government ministers who had been imprisoned during the apartheid struggle, consider taking mentoring roles for high profile political prisoners in other parts of the world like Shi’i Muslim cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi, an advocate of the separation of religion and government,  who has been imprisoned several times by the Iranian government as well as prisoner Raif Badawi, who was arrested in 2012 for insulting Islam through electronic channels in Saudi Arabia.