There comes a moment when political alliances reveal more than speeches ever could. The ANC’s conduct during 2025 showed us something deeply unsettling: it has chosen Hamas over Fatah. It has embraced militancy over moderation. And in so doing it has abandoned the diplomatic legacy it claims to uphold.
The first paragraph of the ANC’s February 7 press statement in 2024 proudly recited history, reminding us that the ANC and Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) had been aligned since the 1950s.
It reiterated that Nelson Mandela met Yasser Arafat two weeks before his release, and insisted that the PLO embodied “a just struggle for freedom, self-determination and dignity”. Yet when the time came to demonstrate loyalty to that legacy, the ANC did the opposite.
Instead of strengthening ties with the secular national movement that built the PLO, represents Palestine at the UN and recognises Israel as a negotiating partner, the ANC rolled out the red carpet for Hamas. And it did it boldly, unapologetically, in the full glare of cameras at Luthuli House.
On December 5 2023, just weeks after the horrors of October 7, Hamas was received at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg by secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, with SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila also in attendance.
Photographs from the meeting show Hamas officials in bilateral discussions with the ANC’s most senior leaders. They were welcomed at the highest political level and sat in the same rooms where ANC liberation giants once strategised and shaped the future of South Africa, underscoring the symbolic and historical importance of Luthuli House as the heart of the party’s political legacy.
The ANC statement even attempted to imply that Fatah was part of that delegation. Yet anyone who understands Palestinian politics knows how absurd that is. Fatah and Hamas do not travel together. They have been locked in bitter conflict since 2007. They have fought bloody street battles in Gaza and strive to run separate governments. Their visions for Palestine are not only different but fundamentally opposed.
So why did the ANC try to mention them in one breath? Because it knew how things looked. It knew embracing Hamas alone would expose a shift in loyalty. It tried to smooth the optics, but the truth stood naked. No Fatah official attended that meeting. Not one photograph. Not one quote. Not one seat next to the ANC bigwigs.
Yet months later, when Fatah’s deputy secretary-general, Sabri Saidam, arrived to commemorate 60 years of ANC-PLO friendship, the grand invitations disappeared. There was no Luthuli House photo op. No top six. No secretary-general. No ceremonial handshake before flashing cameras.
Saidam, the man representing Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, head of the movement the ANC claims as its historical sibling, was met by regional structures and a lone member of the NEC subcommittee. Sixty years of shared struggle. And the PLO got a podium in Ekurhuleni instead of a seat at the Luthuli House table.
If this is not diplomatic demotion, what is it?
Fatah/PLO and Hamas are not the same, and the ANC knows it
Fatah built the PLO. Under Arafat, the PLO became internationally recognised as the representative of the Palestinian people. In 1988 it accepted a two-state solution and formally recognised Israel’s right to exist. That recognition allowed Mandela and Tambo to stand beside them, not as militants but as diplomats.
The PLO signed the Oslo Accords. It negotiates with world governments. It participates in the UN. It seeks a Palestinian state through recognition, international law and negotiation. It is imperfect, slow, political and often criticised, but it operates within diplomacy.
Hamas rejects all this. Its founding charter states that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it”. It opposes the Oslo Accords. It does not accept negotiation as a legitimate process.
It seeks liberation exclusively through armed struggle. It is consequently designated a terrorist organisation by the US, EU, Canada and others. It has governed Gaza with authoritarian control, often violently suppressing and executing those who differ with their ideas and dissent.
To pretend these two factions are interchangeable is to lie by omission. One pushes for statehood through diplomacy. The other pushes for victory through perpetual war, a path Hamas continues to follow despite the heavy toll it takes on civilians, including Palestinian men, women and children.
And yet, the ANC chose to elevate Hamas. This is not simply symbolic preference. It is a dangerous political realignment. In a moment when the world needs voices pushing for ceasefire, negotiation and humanitarian corridors, the ANC is gravitating toward the faction that has no interest in compromise.
If South Africa truly wants peace in Gaza, the logical partner is Fatah through the PLO, not Hamas. The PLO holds the seat in the UN. The PLO conducts state-building diplomacy. The PLO is the movement Mandela recognised. It is the movement with which the ANC claims historical brotherhood. But instead of reinforcing that channel for peace, the ANC humiliated it with silence.
The war in Gaza will not end through maximalism or revolutionary theatrics. It will end through negotiation, territorial agreement, hostage returns, humanitarian co-ordination and political recognition. Only Fatah and the PLO are structurally positioned to negotiate any of that.
Hamas cannot deliver a diplomatic solution to end the war; it can only deliver continued resistance. When the ANC embraces Hamas and sidelines Fatah it is not just choosing a faction. It is choosing endless war over possible peace.
ANC betrays Mandela
Mandela embraced armed struggle when he had no choice, but spent the rest of his life proving that true liberation comes from dialogue. His words to Arafat were clear: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” But Mandela did not believe freedom is built through absolute refusal of negotiation. He believed in reconciliation, co-existence and political resolution.
That is why he met Arafat. That is why Fatah became the ANC’s historic ally. That is why the ANC preached two-state recognition for decades. Now the party stands shoulder to shoulder with Hamas, while Fatah is relegated to the sidelines like an inconvenient relative at a wedding. It quotes history but acts against its lessons. It pretends to celebrate Arafat’s memory but ignores his successors.
What does this say about the ANC? It reveals a party intoxicated by the performance of revolution rather than the practice of peace. The ANC is no longer driven by diplomacy or moral clarity. It is driven by theatre. It chooses the thrill of defiant slogans over the discipline required for negotiation. It prefers to appear revolutionary instead of acting responsibly.
The danger is not symbolic. It is strategic and global. The ANC’s alignment with Hamas sits in the same shadow as its growing closeness with Iran, one of Hamas’s main financial and ideological backers. This is not accidental. Iran funds proxies across the Middle East that carry the ideological DNA of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Many quietly ask whether the ANC’s affinity for Hamas is powered not only by rhetoric but by financial influence. If the rumours are true that the ANC was unable to pay its staff salaries without assistance last month, we must ask whether desperation will make our foreign policy more extreme, more one-sided and more open to external patronage.
This is about the future of our international posture. Will we be a nation of mediators or a factional megaphone for foreign interests? The path the ANC has chosen answers for us.
South Africa deserves leadership rooted in principle, not dependency. Palestine deserves peace, not proxy wars. Fatah and the PLO, our historic allies, deserve better than abandonment despite their shortcomings.
The ANC cannot perform rebellion and claim diplomacy.
- Chauke is a community and student activist at Wits University, where he has served on the SRC.
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