A 22-member delegation of South Africa’s Patriotic Alliance party visited Israel at the end of May, expressing steadfast support for the Jewish state and opposing the ruling African National Congress’s pro-Hamas stance.
“The purpose of the trip with the Patriotic Alliance is to look at South Africa’s issues and to look at Israeli solutions and how to rebrand both together,” one of the leaders of the mission, popular South African radio personality Bafana Modise, told JNS on Monday as Israel celebrated Jerusalem Day. “We want to reset the relationship.”
Modise noted that after Gayton McKenzie, the leader of the right-wing Patriotic Alliance (PA) who serves as Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture in the South African Government of National Unity (GNU), visited Israel in 2023, he instructed his party leadership to investigate how Israeli innovation and high-tech could help South Africa in fields such as water technology and fighting unemployment.
The PA fared well in the 2021 municipal elections, particularly in the Western Cape and Gauteng, and has 85 council seats across the country. It won nine seats in the National Assembly (South Africa’s parliament) in the 2024 general election, after which it joined the ANC-led GNU.
Johannesburg councilor speaks out
Theo Doyle, a devout Catholic who serves as a councilor on the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality Council, was palpably moved by his first visit to Israel.
“The ANC took a stance against Israel because they are aligned with Palestine, Hamas and Iran, but they can’t speak on behalf of 60 million citizens,” Doyle told JNS during a visit to the National Library of Israel. “South Africa is a Christian nation—more than 80 percent are Christians—and believe me, they side with Israel.”
Asked how relations between South Africa and Israel that soured after Oct. 7, 2023, can change, Doyle said the delegation had visited a water desalination plant and observed technology that South Africa desperately needs but was deprived of because it originated in Israel.
“The ANC won’t accept this solution because they are against Israel,” he said. “The ANC is against Israel, not South Africa. The only way we can change that, in my personal opinion, is a change of government in South Africa. The Patriotic Alliance is with Israel. And this doesn’t mean that we’re enemies of Palestine. We want both sides to live together as human beings.”
Patriotic Alliance statement
In a press release, the Patriotic Alliance said it was “proud to confirm that a delegation of its leaders—comprising members of parliament, senior party officials and parliamentary candidates—had traveled to Israel as guests of the South African Friends of Israel (SAFI) in partnership with Bridges for Peace, a globally recognized humanitarian and Christian-Jewish solidarity organization based in Jerusalem.”
It said the purpose of the visit was clear: “To engage directly with Israeli leaders and experts in the fields of technology, agriculture, water management and humanitarian development—areas that are critical to solving South Africa’s most pressing challenges.”
Signed by Chinelle Stevens, the party’s secretary-general, it concluded, “We call on all South Africans—especially our youth—to see in this visit a symbol of what the PA stands for: a bold, forward-looking, values-rooted movement determined to fix South Africa from the ground up.”
Finding out the truth for themselves
Shaun Zagnoev, chairman of SAFI and one of the organizers of the trip, said it was the fourth mission he had brought from South Africa to Israel this year. “Our message is that Israel has an amazing amount of technology that South Africa could benefit from,” he said.
“I think one example, which is most telling, is that when South Africa and Cape Town specifically was experiencing drought four or five years ago, water scarcity was a real concern and a presentation was made to the local government which required national government endorsement for a desalination facility that would be enabled by Israeli technology,” Zagnoev told JNS.
He continued, “That was completely rejected for political reasons. So that demonstrated to many people that the ANC is more interested in parochial political ideology as opposed to promoting the interests of the South African people.”
As a Jewish leader, Zagnoev said, “What excites us is that there are parties like the Patriotic Alliance that are putting the interests of South Africans ahead of all other interests, but more than that, they are also open-minded to explore what’s happening in Israel.”
He said that since October 2023, when South Africa recalled its ambassador from Israel as a result of Israel’s declaration of war against Hamas, the ANC had effectively imposed an embargo on all its members from traveling to Israel.
“They cannot come to Israel to find out the truth for themselves, preventing them from seeing the truth. What’s wonderful about the Patriotic Alliance and other parties like them, there’s an interest and a desire to see the truth for themselves, and I think without exception, when they arrive in Israel and get direct exposure, then all the myths and the lies about Israel being an apartheid state fall out the window.”
Asked if he thought such missions had an impact, Zagnoev said, “Yes, I think that people are fundamentally changed by the experience. All South Africans have been bombarded by the media about the Middle East conflict and they come here with a certain perception. Without exception, that perception is completely obliterated and when they leave, they really understand the situation differently.”
He stressed, “It’s not an attempt by us to brainwash them. It’s just giving them exposure and they then form their own views.”
Doyle noted that the delegation had visited an Israeli-Palestinian industrial park and spoken to Palestinians and Israelis in the factories there.
“It was evident that the Palestinians and the Israelis work together very well,” he said. “Sometimes what we do when we want to push a certain narrative for the wrong reasons is we nullify the 95 percent of good and zoom in and magnify the 5 percent that’s wrong. What we’ve seen in the past few days is something totally different with regard to working together, and it’s not what the mainstream media is pushing.”
Asked if his party could play a role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Doyle said, “Yes, we can play a big role. Our leader is very vocal about this. He wants coexistence and peace to prevail, because what happens here also affects us at home.”
‘This is not apartheid’
Modise said members of the delegation had witnessed Palestinians thriving in both Ramallah and Rawabi. “They got to see both sides of the coin, and it’s not perfect, but most of them agreed: This is not apartheid. There may be two people at war, but in the state of war, they’re still pursuing growth and success for their communities.”
One day, he said, smiling, “When the Patriotic Alliance is in power, we will have collaboration with Israel and claim our glory days of success, growth and economic prosperity.”
Doyle said, “I think the word ‘apartheid’ is abused [by Israel’s enemies]. They’re just trying to push their narrative, but what we’ve seen here doesn’t come close to apartheid. But that won’t stick because South Africans know what they went through and that it’s a big lie.”
Zagnoev said, “There’s no semblance of apartheid here. I think it’s almost a crime against the South African people to cheapen apartheid in that way.”
He noted that the delegation had also visited Israeli relief organizations such as Innovation: Africa and IsraAID that “reflected the ethos of what the Israeli people represent.”
“Israelis have a strong interest in uplifting the rest of the world and applying their know-how and relief efforts wherever they’re called upon,” he concluded. “And the frustration that we expressed is that these relief efforts are not being allowed into South Africa. While they have the ability to materially enhance South Africa, because of political barriers that have been introduced by the ANC government, this upliftment opportunity is prevented from entering South Africa.”
Doyle added, “These two organizations, IsraAID and Innovation: Africa, are doing a great job. It’s just unbelievable and people don’t see that side of Israel. I think the people in Israel don’t like to advertise what they are doing, but sometimes you have to show others and say, ‘Look what we are doing—and yet you are following the lies about us.'”