The South African government and its department of international relations & co-operation (Dirco) have made a moral and practical blunder in their expulsion of Israeli chargé d’affaires Ariel Seidman from the country.
The expulsion, announced on January 30, was allegedly a response to Seidman using official diplomatic channels to “launch insulting attacks against His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa”, as well as failing to inform Dirco that senior Israeli officials were in the country.
The expulsion and declaring of Seidman persona non grata is yet another episode in continued attacks by the South African government on Israel and individuals perceived as being associated with Israel. It follows South Africa trying to shut down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria in November 2023 and waging a blatantly flawed case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
It is clear that the South African government has a vendetta against Israel and the West in general, pushed by the ANC’s special relationship with Iran, which has engaged in extreme violence against its own civilian population over January, with no condemnation forthcoming from the ANC.
In the lead-up to Seidman’s expulsion, AbaThembu king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo led Israeli officials around villages and hospitals in the Eastern Cape, where Israeli officials offered help to flood- and poverty-stricken communities that the provincial and national government have repeatedly failed.
The assistance on offer was in the form of helping to develop water infrastructure and providing expertise to address the shortage of potable water. Help was also offered to hospital management, where Israeli medical expertise and support systems were offered. Local traditional leaders and business figures were offered help to boost their agricultural productivity.
The Eastern Cape has been neglected by the ANC and the government for decades, left to rot in squalor as children die of malnourishment. Despite being one of the most fertile provinces in the country, mismanagement, corruption and bad policy have resulted in the Eastern Cape’s people suffering from extreme poverty. The government has done little to nothing to address these issues.
Dalindyebo believes Dirco is actively trying to stop the Israeli government from helping the people of the Eastern Cape — possibly to save face given the government’s own failures. The AbaThembu see this intervention by Dirco as an attack on their kingdom and traditional authority.
What further calls Seidman’s expulsion into question is Dirco’s general hypocrisy over foreign meddling in local affairs, as well as the company the ANC chooses to keep on the world stage.
The Lady R, which docked in Simon’s Town naval base in December 2022, was likely to have carried weapons or munitions for Russia to use in its war in Ukraine. Despite evidence to the contrary, the government ran its own shady internal investigation and cleared the ship. The Russian embassy in South Africa has also been allowed to use its social media platforms to wage a mass disinformation campaign.
On top of this, South Africa’s close ties to the Iranian government, which is likely to have killed upwards of 30,000 of its own people in January alone, should call into question the government’s moral integrity. Not to mention its ties to China, which has actively suppressed its Muslim minority while seemingly preparing to invade Taiwan and simultaneously occupying Tibet.
The facts of the matter were that the Israeli officials were in South Africa to try to alleviate the suffering of South African people the government had failed to care for. Their attempts were quashed due to petty politics and ideological animosity. Nothing more or less.
This episode further breaks down our already deteriorating relationship with the only true pluralistic democracy in the Middle East, costing us access to Israeli aid, technology and expertise. As droughts threaten to wreck our country, we shouldn’t be risking our ties with a people who have been able to turn the desert green.
Above this, further antagonising Israel also jeopardises our already tenuous trade relationship with the US and the West — further threatening untold hundreds of thousands of jobs and livelihoods.
Dirco and the ANC must stop their obsessive hatred against Israel and abandon their neo-Cold War mentality. All it accomplishes is to hurt the South African people and deny them the help they so desperately need.
• Woode-Smith is an author and geopolitical analyst.
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