Vusimuzi Madonsela, South African Ambassador to the Netherlands, and Ronald Lamola, South African Justice Minister, put together to attend a listening to as South Africa has requested the court docket to specify measures relating to alleged human rights violations by Israel in Gaza, January 11, 2024 The Hague, Netherlands. On January 11 and 12, the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ), the judicial arm of the United Nations, in The Hague, South Africa, appealed to the ICJ to ask it to rule on attainable acts of “genocide” by Israel within the Gaza Strip. (Picture by Michel Porro/Getty Photos)
A invoice calling for a full assessment of the nation's bilateral relations with South Africa has been launched within the US Congress after the Worldwide Court docket of Justice dominated that it was believable that Israel dedicated genocide in opposition to Gaza.
The bipartisan invoice launched this week by Republican US Congressman John James and Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz may jeopardize South Africa's prospects of benefiting from the African Progress and Alternative Act (AGOA).
The invoice nonetheless must be mentioned and handed by Congress.
It states that no later than 30 days after the enactment of this legislation, US President Joe Biden, in session with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Protection, should certify to the related congressional committees and publicly publish an unclassified choice explicitly stating whether or not South Africa has participated Engaged in actions that undermine the nationwide safety or overseas coverage pursuits of the US.
It additional states that the US authorities should submit an unclassified report back to the related congressional committees justifying the choice on its certification.
U.S. Embassy spokesman David Feldmann declined to remark. The ANC and authorities response might be added upon receipt.
The invoice accuses the ANC of performing opposite to its publicly said coverage of non-alignment in worldwide affairs.
It says the South African authorities has traditionally sided with malign actors, together with Hamas and the Russian Federation.
The US Congress invoice argues that the South African authorities's assist of Hamas dates again to 1994, when the ANC first got here to energy and took a troublesome stance, repeatedly accusing Israel of training apartheid .
Nevertheless, it’s identified that the ANC and the South African authorities have had ties to the Palestine Liberation Group because the time of former President Nelson Mandela.
“Following the unprovoked and unprecedented horrific assault by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, wherein Hamas terrorists killed and kidnapped a whole bunch of Israelis, members of the South African authorities and leaders of the ANC have made a wide range of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel-related statements and actions,” it says.
The US Congress says a few of the anti-Semitic statements embody President Cyril Ramaphosa's statements accusing Israel of genocide.
It stated the anti-Semitic statements included an announcement by Worldwide Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor expressing concern in regards to the escalation of violence and calling on Israel to train restraint in response.
It provides that Pandor implicitly blamed Israel for upsetting the assault by “the continued unlawful occupation of Palestinian land, the continued settlement enlargement, the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Christian holy websites, and the continued oppression of the Palestinian folks.” have.
She accused ANC nationwide spokesman Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri of anti-Semitic remarks after stating that the Palestinians' choice to reply to the brutality of Israel's settler apartheid regime was not shocking.
“On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed a politically motivated lawsuit with the Worldwide Court docket of Justice falsely accusing Israel of genocide. The South African authorities is cultivating ever nearer ties with the Russian Federation, which is accused of committing warfare crimes and indiscriminately undermining human rights in Ukraine. “South Africa’s strong relationship with Russia extends throughout the navy and political spheres, together with permitting a U.S.-sanctioned Russian cargo ship, the Woman R, to dock at a South African naval base and switch weapons in December 2022,” says the invoice.
It additionally famous that South Africa had despatched a number of high-level official delegations to Russia to advertise political, intelligence and navy cooperation.
The Congressional invoice states that South Africa and the ANC's relationship with the Chinese language authorities and its ruling Chinese language Communist Occasion (CCP), which commits gross human rights abuses in Xinjiang province and makes use of coercive financial techniques across the globe, undermine South Africa's democracy and constitutional system Authorities.
These legal guidelines reportedly embody ongoing cross-party collaboration between the ANC and CCP; Recruiting former United States and NATO fighter pilots to coach Chinese language Folks's Liberation Military pilots on the Check Flying Academy of South Africa; South Africa is dwelling to 6 Chinese language government-backed and CCP-linked Confucius Institutes; South Africa's participation in a Chinese language Communist Occasion-funded political coaching faculty in Tanzania, working with the Chinese language international Belt and Highway Initiative; and the widespread presence of PRC state-affiliated firms in South Africa's media and know-how sectors.
“The ANC-led South African authorities has a historical past of considerably mismanaging quite a few state sources and has usually confirmed unable to successfully ship public providers, posing a risk to the South African folks and the South African economic system,” the invoice says.
The invoice accuses Ramaphosa of declaring a nationwide state of catastrophe over the worsening vitality disaster, “the worsening, multi-year vitality disaster attributable to the ANC's persistent mismanagement of state energy utility Eskom and ensuing from endemic high-level corruption.” . .
It stated Transnet's ongoing insufficient capability, an ongoing cholera outbreak, an absence of fresh water provision to households and rampant state seize have been a part of the ANC authorities's mismanagement of the state.