South African Zionist Federation

Days after the anniversary of 7 October, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded its Peace Prize to Navi Pillay, whose UN inquiry refused to stand behind the Israeli women raped that day. Women were raped beside the bodies of their friends. Hostages were sexually abused in the tunnels of Gaza. The UN's own envoy found reasonable grounds to believe it happened. Survivors found the courage to speak. Pillay's commission said it could not verify their suffering. Then it turned around and devoted an entire report to accusing Israel. On 10 December, the final day of the 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence, she will collect the world's most famous prize for peace. South Africa knows what it costs when survivors are doubted. We say it every year: believe women. That must include Israeli women. There can be no peace built on the silence of survivors. This prize is a disgrace to everything it claims to stand for.

ADJUDICATION NO: 24/A/2026 The South African Zionist Federation welcomes the BCCSA’s ruling in our complaint against 702, following a broadcast in which the term “Zionist entity” was repeatedly used to describe Israel without appropriate challenge or context. The BCCSA found in the SAZF’s favour and ordered 702 to broadcast an apology. We thank the BCCSA for its careful consideration of the complaint and for continuing to uphold the standards of fairness and balance that are essential to responsible broadcasting in South Africa. Of particular significance, the Commission relied on the precedent established in Lorgat v SABC (SAfm). It is a useful reminder that broadcasting standards and the precedents that uphold them apply consistently - irrespective of the political perspective of the complainant. Precedent works both ways. The SAZF will continue to engage constructively with South African media and, where necessary, hold broadcasters accountable to the standards required of them. Fair broadcasting matters. And so does accountability.

UN TITLE SHIELDS SA DOCTOR FROM ACCOUNTABILITY "You white man. Evil scum. Voetsek." That is how a South African doctor holding a United Nations (UN) title answered Hillel Neuer, one of the most prominent human rights advocates in Geneva, after he asked the UN to hold her to its own code of conduct. South Africa's health regulator looked at that language, and sanctioned Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng for using “inappropriate language” that brings the profession into disrepute because it can “be perceived as racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise prejudiced”. Any other doctor in this country would have carried that finding for the rest of their career. Today the Pretoria High Court set it aside in an unopposed application. No court has held that Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng's conduct met professional standards. No court was asked. That is not the same as being cleared. Before deciding whether to defend its own finding, the HPCSA asked the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) whether Dr Mofokeng enjoyed any diplomatic immunity. Director-General Zane Dangor replied that Special Rapporteurs are immune from legal process for words spoken or written "whilst performing their duties". Those four words are the entire question. Whether social media posts fall within them is what the HPCSA needed answered. Dangor's letter is silent. It names her mandate, the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and never returns to it. It examines not one post. It does not ask how telling a respected human rights advocate that he is “evil scum” advances anybody's health. Nothing in that letter bound the Council. The HPCSA has its own Act, its own inquiry and its own finding, reached on the merits. It walked away from that finding anyway, and its Preliminary Committee was excused from giving reasons. Not one word of explanation has been offered to the public, to the profession, or to the man she verbally abused. Immunity exists so that UN work cannot be obstructed. It is not a licence to speak to people in a way your own professional body has already condemned, and then answer to nobody. A test that is never applied constrains nothing, and on the reasoning in that letter it is unclear what a UN mandate holder could say that DIRCO would place outside it. That is not academic. Dr Mofokeng is a Mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg. "Any other South African doctor who said that would have answered for it," said Rolene Marks, National Spokesperson of the South African Zionist Federation. "She held a UN title, a government department wrote a letter, and the finding vanished. Nobody has explained what changed."

While politicians focus abroad, communities in the Eastern Cape are still waiting for something basic: clean running water. We’re launching the Eastern Cape Flotilla to help bring water to more than 35,000 people in AmaNtshangase. Watch. Share. Support. 🌊 Donate: easterncapeflotilla.co.za

South Africa declared the world's gravest emergency at the ICJ - then requested delays until 2029. You cannot claim urgent genocide and ask for years to file your paperwork. The contradiction is not procedural. It is the verdict. Read our statement here sazf.org/current-issues/sout…

The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) has written to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to express alarm at remarks by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola suggesting that diplomatic pressure on South Africa over xenophobia is being partly “coordinated” by “state and non-state actors” linked to the country’s ICJ case against Israel. Speaking on the sidelines of a SAIIA symposium in Cape Town, Minister Lamola stated that “with the geo-political environment and South Africa’s role in the international space, including our case at the ICJ, you cannot exclude state and non-state actors trying to erode the human rights standing of South Africa.” While the Minister did not name Israel directly, he explicitly linked his suggestion of coordinated foreign interference to the ICJ case. The implication has been widely understood as such. “South Africa has heard this before,” said SAZF National Chairman Craig Pantanowitz. “During the xenophobic violence of 2008, when more than 60 people were killed and over 100,000 displaced, political leaders reached for ‘third forces’, foreign agendas and shadowy external actors rather than confronting the failures at home. The result was not accountability. It was denial. Nearly two decades later, the same playbook is being dusted off.” The SAZF said that the growing diplomatic concern from African states cannot credibly be dismissed as the product of geopolitical manipulation. “Ghana and Nigeria are not protesting because of some international conspiracy,” Pantanowitz said. “They are protesting because their nationals are being harassed, attacked and chased through South African streets, and the footage is circulating across the continent in real time. The diplomatic fallout is the consequence, not the cause.” The organisation further noted the contradiction in Minister Lamola’s own remarks, pointing out that in the same interview he acknowledged that a cabinet colleague had “gone too far” and was fuelling xenophobic sentiment from within government itself. “He cannot have it both ways,” Pantanowitz said. “Either the problem is inflammatory rhetoric from inside his own cabinet, or it is a foreign conspiracy. It cannot simultaneously be both.” The SAZF warned that rhetoric seeking to explain domestic violence through vague allegations of hidden foreign manipulation risks reinforcing the very logic that underpins xenophobia itself. “There is a deeper concern here,” Pantanowitz added. “When political leaders respond to internal social failures by hinting at hidden foreign forces operating behind the scenes, they mirror the same politics of suspicion and scapegoating that fuel xenophobia on the ground. A government cannot credibly condemn xenophobia in the streets while indulging a version of it at cabinet level.” The SAZF calls on Minister Lamola to either withdraw the insinuation, publicly identify the actors he claims are involved, or refrain from making reckless allegations without evidence. “South Africa’s moral standing is not being eroded by foreigners,” Pantanowitz concluded. “It is being eroded by leaders who reach for conspiracy theories instead of taking responsibility for what is happening at home.”

The South African Zionist Federation is devastated by the brutal murder of Steven Gruzd. We mourn, with profound grief and a broken heart, a scholar, analyst, writer, wordsmith, and deeply beloved member of our community. Steven was taken from us in an act of senseless violence on Friday evening. He was 53 years old. For decades, Steven was one of South Africa’s sharpest and most respected analytical minds. As Head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs, he brought rigour, nuance, and intellectual honesty to some of the continent’s most complex political challenges. His work was cited, respected, and relied upon by policymakers, diplomats, and researchers across Africa and around the world. Through his writing in the SA Jewish Report, always clear-eyed, always fair, always illuminating, he brought that same clarity directly to our community, helping us understand our country, our world, and our place within it. Yet Steven was far more than his formidable intellect. He was a gentle soul and a truly decent human being in the fullest sense of those words. A familiar and cherished presence at SAZF events, he gave generously of his time, his insight, and his warmth. His colleagues at SAIIA speak of his brilliance, his collegiality, and the quiet kindness he brought to everything he did, a description that all who knew him will recognise instantly. He was the kind of person who made every room warmer, and every conversation more meaningful. He was also a Scrabble champion who represented South Africa at the All Africa Games, a pursuit that suited him perfectly, precise, playful, and always in command of exactly the right word. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, his wife, his daughters, and all who loved him. They have lost a husband and a father. We have lost a giant. Steven Gruzd z"l. May his memory be a blessing, and may his family know no more sorrow.