Mandela’s Grandson Said To “Al -Thawra”: South Africa’s Commitment To Support The Palestinian Struggle Is Initial
The late African fighter Nelson Mandela embodied the meaning of human brotherhood, the brothers of creation that Imam Ali bin Abi Talib – peace be upon him – described it. Mandela visited Gaza in 1995 AD, and from there he made a promise that his country works to support the Palestinian struggle until liberation, “The independence of the South African state will not be completed except with the independence of Palestine,” Mandela said.
In this position, the true believer who loves others as himself as is be embodied as in the hadith of the most honorable Prophet Mohammed.
Mandela established the African National Congress Party, and led a long struggle until South Africa got rid of the apartheid system in 1994.
For 30 years, the Mandela Party remained and is still the ruling party in the State of South Africa, and the party still adheres to the promise of Mandela to support the Palestinian struggle, and this prompted the South African government to submit a lawsuit against the Israeli entity to the International Court of Justice in December 2023 AD.
For Palestine, the grandson of Mandela Zueellelil Mandela- a member of Parliament in South Africa, responded to the invitation of Sanaa to participate in the “Third Palestine International Conference”, which concluded its work on 25th of last March.
Al-Thawra newspaper met the grandson of Mandela in which he spoke about his country’s commitment to support the Palestinian struggle, the lawsuit that it raised in the International Court of Justice, the pressures that his country is exposed because its position, the interview also touched on the Arab betrayal of their Palestinian brothers compared to the African support that his country received in its struggle against the apartheid system.
Interviewed by: Abbas Al-Sayed
Politicians in South Africa are circulating a famous saying for your grandfather Nelson Mandela, which is “Our freedom will remain incomplete unless the freedom of Palestinians completed”. Mandela’s saying is more like a political principle for South Africa, even though it is more ethical than political. What makes you adhere to this principle in a world controlled by interests and profit and loss accounts?
– First, thank you for inviting me to talk through your newspaper.
My grandfather Nelson Mandela visited Gaza in 1995, and announced from there that the freedom of South Africa is not complete without the freedom of Palestine, and this is a real commitment to support the Palestinian struggle by the people and leadership in the state of South Africa, and not only by Mandela.
We used to benefit from the world’s solidarity with us to obtain our freedom, and that international solidarity constituted a great pressure on the apartheid system in our country and this was among the main factors that led to our freedom and our independence by getting rid of the apartheid system in 1994.
On this basis, my grandfather Mandela presented a promise or a commitment to solidarity and support for Palestine’s liberation.
We, this current generation in the state of South Africa, took our responsibility, and we are currently fighting for Palestine to get its independence.
South Africa is under political and economic pressure and sanctions by the United States and some European indicators because of its positions in supporting Palestinian. What is the impact of these pressures on South African positions?
– These are tactics that the United States follow to pressure our country to abandon its support for Palestine and thus protect its Zionist agent in the region, but in South Africa we are determined that the perpetrators of genocide in Palestine will receive their punishment for the war crimes and ethnic qualifiers, and to hold them full responsibility for their crimes since the Nakba in 1948 AD.
According to South African strugglers, the Palestinian struggle was inspiring them in their march to liberate from the apartheid system. What is the difference between the former racist -South African and Israeli regimes? And why did the South Africans succeed and the Palestinians failed?
– We should not consider that the Palestinians failed to obtain their independence, we must remember that in South Africa we have remained under occupation 350 years and then fifty years under the unjust apartheid system, this means that our suffering lasted 400 years, while the Palestinians have been suffering under occupation since the 1940s – about 75 years, but it is in fact more tragic and racist than we in South Africa.
As for the reasons that made South Africa succeed in obtaining its freedom, this is not only due to the efforts or struggle of its children. The grandfather Nelson Mandela has provided two options: either we surrender to the apartheid system, or we resist, and we have chosen the resistance option.
The African National Congress Party was formed as a political framework with a military wing, and we carried our weapons and fought the occupier, and some liberation movements joined us, and African countries and organizations supported us, and also all the leaders of the large African countries were supporting us.
During our armed struggle, we got the support of the fighter Yasser Arafat, Muammar Gaddafi from Libya, as well as from Cuba and its president, Fidel Castro.
We knew very well that the armed struggle is one of the means of struggle for liberation, and therefore we had to be united, we are the people of South Africa, including student unions and civil society organizations. Then the unified democratic front was formed in the 1980s, and we were able to mobilize all energies in society, and made all our efforts focused against one enemy, which is the apartheid system that persecutes us.
The youth category had an important role in this, as Mandela called on this group to engage in the battle against the apartheid system, and this is similar to what we see now in Palestine, where the youth are at the forefront of the resistance ranks.
We call on the Palestinians to continue their unity and participation effectively in the struggle in Gaza and the West Bank.
It is unfortunate and disturbing us, to see the Arab and the Islamic countries normalization their relations with Israel and involved in the war crimes committed by the occupation in Gaza.
We strongly appeal to these countries that not to be complicit in the crimes of the extermination war committed in Gaza, and stop normalization with Zionists. we invite them to stand with the people of Palestine, and support the Palestinian resistance similar to what Yemen is currently doing under the leadership of Ansar Allah, as well as similar to the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iraqi resistance within the framework of the resistance.
During our struggle in South Africa, we received support from South African immigrants in various countries of the world, they were ambassadors and played an influential struggle in making the world know about our oppression.
Likewise, there are about 7 million Palestinians immigrants abroad, and they have merged into the societies in which they live, and we invite them to extend a helping hand to be at the forefront of the Palestinians to liberate their homeland Palestine.
Finally, the role of the international community itself comes, as we moved among governments, civil society organizations, parliaments in the countries of the world, and we communicated with regional countries, and we were able to obtain support from the Organization of African States currently known as the African Union.
Many countries supported us, and few of them chose to stand by the apartheid system, such as America and Britain, and this is similar to what we see now in the Palestinian case, but we did not despair when Margaret Thatcher – former British Prime Minister – sided with the apartheid system, we connected with people in Britain, and with civil rights organizations in America when President Ronald Reagan sided with the racist system, and these fronts formed an important tributary Approval of the apartheid system in South Africa.
We are now seeing a success achieved by the Palestinian issue through the uprisings that took place all over the world against Zionism.
Personally, you are subjected to a different incitement and pressure campaign because of your positions in supporting Palestinian right. What dose these pressures reflect? and what do you depend on in confronting these pressures?
– For me, I will not be surprised if I prevented from entering Britain. Britain has always been in the wrong side of history, and in the stage of our struggle, Margaret Tatcher was from the Conservative Party – against us, while the British Labor Party was with us, now the Labor Party rules Britain, but it is under control.
I do not see any obstacles that restrict me from traveling to Britain, the British government can prevent us from this to punish us for our supportive position for Palestine, but it cannot silence the Palestinian struggle, and in this regard, we are continuing in our efforts, we are inspired from the Palestinian who pay exorbitant prices, some of them in Israeli prisons subjected to torture and deprivation of the simplest rights, and some of them pay their lives for liberation.
We are also still fighting within the country that prevents us from entering it, and we are continuing to communicate with society in the city of London to urge them to make hundreds of thousands participate in the International Jerusalem Day.
Many political and human rights activists believe that the colonial entity represented by Israel and its racist expansionist policy is a threat to the world, and not on Palestine alone. Do you agree with this view? Was the issue of Palestine the issue of the free world?
Israel or Zionism is just a tool or agent of America in the region, and it has been planted in order to promote American foreign policies, and the danger to the world is American domination of the world.
For us in South Africa, as one of the founding countries of the BRICS with the rest of the other countries – Russia, India, Brazil and China, we see that this has brought a geopolitical change in the world, as the BRICS offers another option other than the unilateral polarity system represented by America, where the one -pole system is transformed into a multi -polar system in international politics, and the countries can equally participating, and many countries have expressed their desire to join the BRICS, from Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Optimistic
We are optimistic with the future, we see the Yemenis resisting Zionism in supporting the people of Gaza, and we see the state of South Africa has gone to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to ensure the condemnation of Zionist movement for its responsibility for the crimes committed in Palestine. until now 13 countries have joined the lawsuit submitted by South Africa, and we call on many other countries to join this lawsuit. How do you evaluate the Yemeni role in supporting Gaza And its impact on the battle with Zionism in Palestine, and with imperialism and Western colonial domination?
– The Yemenis have passed the support for Gaza, and they are involved in the battle itself, and this role give hope to the Palestinians, the Palestinian resistance has become felt that it has a back that is based on, which is the Yemeni people, and that it is not alone.
The Yemenis succeeded in imposing a siege on Israeli navigation, and has become at the forefront of the world’s support for the Palestinian people.
The lawsuit submitted by South Africa to the International Court of Justice against Israel on December 29, 2023 AD, was a bold and courageous step, which may create hatred of million Zionists, but gained the hearts of the peoples of the world. How do you look at the future of this lawsuit and its impact on the Palestinian issue?
– The lawsuit submitted by South Africa has succeeded to some extent in achieving the purpose, because it is the first time in the history of Zionism after 76 years ago that is being tried, and South Africa has succeeded in obtaining the decision to arrest Netanyahu and members of his government who participated in committing genocide in Palestine.
Of course, if this decision is not applied, it has no meaning, but we will continue to pressure with the 120 countries signed on the agreement to combat genocide crimes, that to apply this decision in the event of any of the covered people who are required to its lands. This is an achievement by itself.
We are already under pressure from America, Britain, Germany and other countries to give up our supportive position, and we realize this, but the state of South Africa position is principle, a position consistent with the democratic approach to the state, and also in implementation of the promise made by Nelson Mandela during his visit to Gaza in 1995 AD, that the independence of the state of South Africa is not considered complete unless Freedom of Palestine.
In the 2024 elections, the African National Congress party lost the parliamentary majority for the first time in 30 years, is it due to the positions of the party against Israeli policies. How true is this?
– For us, it can be said that there are two causes or two aspects, because the elections in our country revolve around internal conditions and issues, and the votes based on their assessment of the performance of their parties during the past five years.
In this context, we can look at the results of the last elections on the basis that a some of citizens in the state of South Africa were not confident or satisfied with what the ruling African National Congress Party has accomplished during the last period in the field of development and improving the standard of living of citizens in addition to corruption issues.
External effect
There are also external factors that affected the results of the elections in 2024 AD, as the Zionist Foundation and its allies from states united the opposition parties and financing their campaigns in a way that included the National Congress Party obtaining the lowest percentage of votes, and if it looks at the number of opposition parties that have blocked with each other with Zionist support, it was clear that the presence of a lobby against the African National Congress obtained 155 seats out of 400 seats in Parliament.
Therefore, I think the party should do an internal evaluation to see what it can be done in the 2026 elections.
I think, if the party wants to recover and rebuild itself, it must unite ideology with the parties emanating from it on the left and the far left.
A final word to the Yemenis?
– First, we would like to thank the leaders in Yemen, led by Mr. Abdul -Malik Al -Houthi, for the attendance of the third Palestine International Conference, as being part of the international community, as political activists, to solidarity with Palestine, as well as with Yemen, which is subjected to a continuous blockade.
We take advantage of this opportunity to thank the Yemeni leadership and people who received us with warm feelings, generous hospitality and good reception that was exceptional.
We must all remain steadfast, continuing with the idea and goals of the conference that was held in Sana’a, which is that Palestine will not be alone, and we must join Yemen to support the Palestinian struggle, and we say to the people of Gaza and the West Bank that you are not alone, the Yemeni people stand with you as well as all lovers of freedom in the world stand with you, you will not be alone.
We thank the people of Yemen and assure that we will work to mobilize all the energies of the international community, as we did through the “electronic uprising” and we will continue to do more in supporting the Palestinian people.
