The government has nothing to do with an event where a Hamas delegation may be present.
A three-member Hamas delegation is planned to attend the fifth global Solidarity with Palestine convention, according to rumors.
The location of the event is unknown, but it is slated to take place between December 2 and 5.
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, Minister in the Presidency, informed the media on the conclusions of a Cabinet meeting earlier in the week on Thursday.
Ntshavheni said:
The presence of individuals in the country… we don’t have a Hamas office in South Africa. I don’t have that evidence. But there is no United Nations Declaration that classifies Hamas as a terrorist organisation. If organisation and groups are classified as terrorists, they must be done so by the United Nations otherwise, the ANC wouldn’t be declared a terrorist organisation because the apartheid regime called us that.
On various times, South Africa’s attitude on the conflict between Israel and Hamas has been called into doubt.
This comes after International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor was chastised for speaking on the phone with Hamas’s head barely 10 days after the Palestinian militant group committed a devastating strike on Israel on October 7.
South Africa has filed a case against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and intends to petition the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to declare Israel an apartheid state.
South Africa, along with the Comoros, Djibouti, Bolivia, and Bangladesh, reported the situation in Palestine and Israel to the ICC on November 17.
In a statement, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan stated that his office had received the referral and that it was investigating the situation in Palestine.
The National Assembly revised a proposal in Parliament to suspend South Africa’s diplomatic relations with Israel.
Several groups, most notably the EFF, have used this motion to call for a complete break with Israel.
The parties that rejected the motion during last week’s discussion — the DA, IFP, FF Plus, and ACDP – also opposed the amendment, arguing that shutting the Israeli embassy would deprive South Africa of its role as a prospective peace broker.
However, the government has stated that there has been no decision to close its embassy in Israel.
