news

Jewish groups snubbed at ANC anniversary celebration

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies said the exclusion was contrary to the African National Congress’s historical commitment to inclusivity.

South African and African National Congress President  Cyril Ramaphosa (right) presents an honorary leopard skin to veteran ANC member Benson Fihla during the party's 113th anniversary celebrations at a large open field in the Khayelitsha area of Cape Town on Jan. 11, 2025. Photo by Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images.
South African and African National Congress President Cyril Ramaphosa (right) presents an honorary leopard skin to veteran ANC member Benson Fihla during the party's 113th anniversary celebrations at a large open field in the Khayelitsha area of Cape Town on Jan. 11, 2025. Photo by Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images.

Representatives of the South African Jewish community were excluded from the African National Congress‘s recent celebrations marking the ANC’s 113th anniversary.

In the past, representatives of the Jewish community have been included in the interfaith prayers at major events, and this exclusion from the event at the Mandela Park Stadium in Khayelitsha, in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, on Jan. 11 was indicative of a troubling trend.

In recent years, the ANC has taken a more hostile stance toward the State of Israel and this had gained momentum since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing war with Hamas. The ANC, South Africa’s largest political party, has stated emphatically that it stands in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Wendy Kahn, national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), condemned the exclusion of representatives, saying it was contrary to the ANC’s historical commitment to inclusivity.

Since 1994, after the fall of Apartheid, it had been customary for the Jewish community to be invited to offer prayers at significant ANC events, reflecting the ANC’s stated commitment to inclusivity and recognition of South Africa’s diverse faith communities, Kahn said.

“However, this tradition was unceremoniously abandoned in October 2023, signaling an alarming disregard for the Jewish community’s role within South Africa’s vibrant multicultural fabric,” she continued.

The ANC justified its decision by claiming that faith-based leaders who prayed at the event did so on behalf of all cultural communities. The SAJBD dismissed this explanation as “disingenuous and dismissive,” saying that no single religious group could represent South Africa’s diverse faiths.

Kahn continued, “The omission underscores the discriminatory nature of the decision to single out the Jewish community for exclusion. Sidelining the Jewish community isn’t only hurtful, but sets a dangerous precedent of selective representation, undermining the unity and inclusivity South Africa has worked so hard to achieve.”

She said that had representatives of the SAJBD been invited to participate, their greeting would have included the following:

“Through Your merciful guidance, may the ANC, together with all our country’s leaders, be informed and inspired in all they do by the ringing opening declaration of the Freedom Charter—‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it.’ Let us indeed all commit ourselves to making this an inspired, living reality for all who dwell in our land, so that side by side and as one nation we will be blessed to embark upon a new era of unity, peace and prosperity.”

Chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” blared from the loudspeakers and a small group of keffiyeh-clad marchers carried placards showing clear support for Hamas, and signs saying, “Gaza the Worst Holocaust.”

Israel-South Africa ties remain frozen. In December 2023, South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice accusing the Jewish state of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Topics