Pretoria serves as a “crucial base of operations” for Islamic terror groups, according to a soon-to-be released report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.
The report’s publication comes in the wake of the International Court of Justice’s latest ruling against Israel’s military offensive in Rafah, in a case brought before the court by South Africa.
On Friday, the court ruled by 13 to 2 that the Jewish state must “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
“The ICJ’s ruling is a stark reminder that South Africa has become a hub for extremist activities across the African continent,” said ISGAP Executive Director Charles Asher Small.
“South Africa embraces antisemitic ideologies, supports state-sponsored terror, maintains close ties with and acts on behalf of Iran, Qatar and Hamas,” he added.
According to ISGAP’s report, Pretoria serves as a “crucial base of operations for Islamic terror groups, facilitating connections with networks throughout Africa.”
The report states that “despite long-standing U.S. sanctions, international Islamist entities with terror links continue to operate freely within South Africa, evading global scrutiny.”
It argues that the “Financial Action Task Force (FATF) [which leads global action to tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing] noted South Africa’s failure to effectively identify, investigate, or prosecute terrorist financiers, revealing critical gaps in its anti-terrorism financing measures.”
Addressing Pretoria’s governing party, the report claims that “the African National Congress (ANC) maintains close relationships with Qatar, Iran and terror groups like Hamas.”
The report also highlights “the possibility that Iran funded South Africa’s ANC party in exchange for favorable outcomes in ICJ cases, especially since the ANC’s sudden financial stabilization in early January 2024, after years teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, remains shrouded in mystery and devoid of any detailed explanation.”
According to Small, “South Africa has become a leading voice for terror. By bringing this case against Israel and in favor of Hamas, South Africa further positions itself as a bad actor on the global stage.”
The time has come for the international community “to recognize and address South Africa’s alarming connections with terror-supporting states and entities,” he added.
ISGAP is an international organization that works on mapping, decoding and combatting contemporary antisemitism.
Earlier this year, Small told JNS that the South African government was acting in complete opposition with South Africa’s freedom charter and Nelson Mandela’s vision of democracy by embracing the Iranian revolutionary regime, Qatar and Hamas.
“For the ANC and the South African government of 2024, which inherited the work of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu among others who sacrificed their lives for social democracy, to be in bed with Hamas, the Iranian revolutionary regime and the Qatari Muslim Brotherhood regime is an affront to the South African people,” he said.
“For Pretoria’s ruling party, the corrupt party of 2024, to be in bed with the disciples of true apartheid, true Nazism and true racism, to invite Hamas after they committed a racist massacre based on the ideology of Nazism and Fascism of Europe, is an affront to what the ANC is supposed to represent,” he added.
