Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

12 August 2025

3-minute read

To preserve impunity and shield itself from accountability, the state of Israel is willing to bury the truth in blood.

Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, spokesperson of the National Union of Metal Workers (NUMSA), and author of the piece speaking out against the genocide in Gaza based on SA’s apartheid past, says that as a supporter of Palestinian rights, she has, “for years, went against what Israel is doing.” To her October 7^th is merely an “intensification” of past actions of the state that has an intent to wipe out Palestinians and occupy their lands.

Motivated to pen the article after the reports coming out from Israel last week confirming that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war,” Phakamile stated that she feels personally responsible after having lived through the apartheid regime in the aftermath of PW Botha’s reign. She feels that every South African who has been affected by apartheid is responsible to add their voices in support of Palestinians.”

Drawing parallels between the “state, sanction, and segregation” policy of apartheid South Africa and current day Palestine, Phakamile mentions that both legislations seek to oppress a particular group of people. While black people were the most restricted in South Africa in the past, the same thing is happening to Palestinians living in Gaza and other regions of Palestine today where “the state security machinery is used against you in a very brutal way.”

Palestinians living and working in any part of Israel are not given full citizenship rights nor are they given any protection. Children are rounded up, jailed, and tortured, reminiscent of the 1976 uprisings in Soweto with the apartheid government inflicting untold horrors on children, confronting them with live ammunition and killing them in the streets like animals.

“Israel has spared no-one,” Phakamile emphasized, deliberately targeting even newborn babies alongside innocent children, health workers and civilians, while blowing up buildings, schools, universities, and hospitals. Shooting at children cannot be constituted as war; it should be termed as genocide, mass murder and crime. Similarly, in the old South Africa, black people were brutally oppressed, no respect or dignity was given to them, and no sympathy was engendered for them. By stripping the Palestinian people of any sense of dignity or humanity and going as far as labelling them as “human animals” to justify the relentless killings, Israel is perpetrating a genocide while the world watches.

South Africa’s public condemnation in taking Israel to the ICJ must be commended, Phakamile says, so that it is on record that our country has defended the innocent. On the other hand, Glencore coal is used in Israel, contributing to the annihilation of Palestinians, making SA complicit in the genocide. She mentioned that NUMSA are in the process of consultation to participate in campaigns to find ways around sustainable implementation without causing job loss among the local people.

The fact that the US and the EU is backing Israel makes it clear that the West is not a beacon for freedom. “History would judge them, partially, for their disgraceful actions.” By supporting sanctions and BDS protests against Israel and Israeli products, South Africa can support the Palestinian cause. By not allowing the media discourse to be dictated by racist, Zionist foundations without a response is another method of assisting Palestine. Political parties that support the genocide must be called out and condemned. “We have a moral obligation not to allow that type of narrative to dominate in this country,” Phakamile concluded.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.