Antisemitism occasionally appears on the fringes of society, usually expressed verbally. Jews are not attacked collectively on racial grounds although some individuals have been targetted, mostly in urban centres such as Cape Town and Johannesburg. Given the government's opposition to racism, the climate for public condemnations of antisemitism is more favourable than it has been in the past.
In Johannesburg, where there are large numbers of immigrants and refugees, xenophobia is rife. White supremacist organizations are active in South Africa although their influence and membership is very limited.
Total population: 41.97 million
Jewish population: 90,000 (mainly in Johannesburg and Cape Town)
Other minorities: Whites (12.5 per cent of the population), mixed race (7.5 per cent), Asians (2.5 per cent)
Language: eleven of the numerous languages spoken are officially recognized
Religion: The best available data show that 77 per cent of the population claim affiliation with some form of Christianity: 20 per cent belong to the African independent (or indigenous) churches which are organized into over 4,000 denominations; the Dutch Reformed Church accounts for 14 per cent; the other mainstream Protestant churches (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, United Congregationalist, Lutheran and Baptist) for 23 per cent; the Roman Catholic Church for 9.5 per cent; and the Pentecostal churches for 1.5 per cent; smaller Christian groups such as the Salvation Army, Seventh-Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses are also present. Non-Christian religions account for 4.5 per cent of the population: 519,400 Hindus, 500,000 Muslims, 10,780 Buddhists and smaller groups such as Baha'is, Zoroastrians, Sikhs and Jains. Nineteen per cent of the population are unaffiliated to any religion.
Political system: bicameral parliamentary democracy under an interim constitution (until 1999). South Africa's state and society are still in a period of transition from apartheid to a fully participative democracy; the first democratic elections took place in April 1994.
Head of state: President Nelson Mandela (African National Congress) since May 1994 (due to retire at the next elections in 1999)
Government: Government of National Unity dominated by African National Congress (ANC) and including the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). At the ANC's national conference in Mafikeng in December 1997 Nelson Mandela stepped down as party chairman and was replaced by Thabo Mbeki.
Official opposition: National Party (NP), led since August 1997 by Martinus van Schalkwyk
Other mainstream political parties: Democratic Party (DP), Freedom Front (FF), Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), United Democratic Movement (UDM). The latter was established by Roelf Meyer (a former NP cabinet minister who left the NP in September 1997) and Banta Holomisa (formerly of the ANC).
Next election (and first under the final constitution): 1999
Per capita GDP 1998: US$4,291
Unemployment 1998: 29 per cent
Inflation 1998: 9.4 per cent
Currency: US$1=R6.00 (end of 1998)
The ban on Jewish settlement at the Cape, introduced during the rule of the Dutch East India Company (1652-1795), was abolished by the Batavian administration (1803-6) and the British. In the South African Republic (Transvaal), established by the Voortrekkers in the mid-nineteenth century, non-Protestants, including Jews, remained disenfranchised until the British occupation in 1902. Jewish immigration, mainly from Lithuania following the discovery of diamonds and gold in the late nineteenth century, generated considerable antisemitism.
During the First World War antisemites accused Jews of shirking military responsibilities and, in the inter-war years, tried to associate Jews with Bolshevik subversion. Antisemitism in the 1920s culminated in the 1930 Quota Act, which virtually ended Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. Popular antisemitism during the 1930s and 1940s was evident among the 'Shirt' movements, most notably Louis T. Weichardt's Greyshirts, the Ossewabrandwag (Oxwagon Sentinel) and Oswald Pirow's New Order. The Afrikaner nationalist movement was also influenced by Nazi ideology. Antisemitism prompted the governing United Party to introduce the 1937 Aliens Act, curtailing German-Jewish immigration. NP publications during the Second World War were influenced by European fascism.
Antisemitism declined rapidly after 1945, although Prime Minister Jan Smuts opposed large-scale Jewish immigration. The Greyshirts and New Order disbanded and, in 1951, the ban on Jewish membership of the Transvaal NP (the NP was structured along federal lines) was lifted. Nonetheless the NP, in power after 1948, resented disproportionate Jewish involvement in liberal and communist activities, and Israel's support for the African bloc at the UN in the early 1960s.
Close ties between South Africa and Israel developed in the 1970s promoting favourable attitudes towards the Jews on the part of the white population, although antisemitic outbursts, including expressions of Holocaust denial, were not unusual among elements of the white far right. The majority black population felt betrayed by Israel's close relations with South Africa and sympathized with the Palestinian cause. Although black leaders clearly distinguished between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, there are indications of some anti-Jewish attitudes among black elites.
Since the 'normalization' of South African politics, antisemitic incidents have been relatively isolated and largely confined to the far right and Islamist groups. In 1994 there was a spate of industrial disputes that involved protests against 'Jewish capitalists'. The formation in 1996 of the Western Cape community organization, People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad), and its intimidation campaign against gang leaders has caused some concern.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 1996, continues its task of investigating crimes committed under the apartheid regime between 1960 and 1994. A database of more than 14,000 human rights abuses has been compiled and thousands of victims have been acknowledged. By the beginning of 1998 the TRC's focus shifted to amnesty applications (7,000 have been received) and the victim reparations process.
The constitution and bill of rights prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic or social origin and culture. In recent years, in an effort to tackle the past injustices of the apartheid regime, the government has begun reorganizing the educational, housing and health care systems to benefit all racial and ethnic groups more equally. According to the 1996 Department of Labour survey, 82 per cent of private sector firms have instituted affirmative action programmes. These programmes have been making progress although huge discrepancies in wealth and living conditions remain.
The South African government co-operates with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees. The government provides first asylum, that is, the granting of temporary asylum to refugees hoping to relocate in a third country. In 1997 the government registered applications from over 17,000 asylum-seekers, approximately 30 per cent of whom were granted refugee status.
Nonetheless the flood of illegal aliens into South Africa (estimated at 3 million) has caused considerable alarm. With high unemployment and scarce resources the presence of large numbers of refugees generates significant xenophobia, particularly in Johannesburg. According to a survey carried out by the Centre for Policy Studies in Johannesburg and published in December 1997, South Africa's poor and jobless black population are becoming increasingly xenophobic, and since 1994 has switched its anger from the apartheid government to illegal immigrants. Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi is reported to have said that the rising number of illegal immigrants had 'awesome implications' for the Reconstruction and Development Programme as 'they [illegal immigrants] will be absorbing unacceptable proportions of housing subsidies and adding to the difficulties we are experiencing in health care'. Thousands of illegal immigrants were deported by the end of 1997, some 70 per cent of whom originated from Mozambique. During 1998 there were further reports of violent attacks on foreigners in Johannesburg.
In 1996 the parliament passed an amnesty bill which allowed certain illegal immigrants who had lived in South Africa for five years or more to become legal residents. By the November 1996 deadline some 200,000 people had applied for amnesty and government amnesty statistics indicate an approval rate of approximately 50 per cent. Separate amnesty programmes have been instituted for mineworkers and Mozambican refugees, benefitting about 350,000 people.
In 1969 the Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP, Reconstituted National Party) was formed to counter any deviations from apartheid philosophy. The party's official publication Die Afrikaner (circulation 8,000) has featured numerous antisemitic articles and letters (see Holocaust denial and Publications and media).
The neo-Nazi group Afrikaaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB, Afrikaner Resistance Movement), led by Eugene Terre'Blanche, has been keeping a very low profile of late. This is most likely due to Terre'Blanche's conviction for assault as well as legal proceedings against some AWB activists (see Legal matters). Founded in 1981 the AWB pursues exclusivist, racist and antisemitic policies. It includes a paramilitary wing, the Storm Falcons, and a crack guerrilla unit, the Ystergarde (Iron Guard). Since the 1994 elections, however, its operations have been limited.
Antisemitic views have on occasion been expressed by various small right-wing groupings - such as the Israelites, a branch of the Church of the Creator (see also Australia, Canada and Sweden), the Kultuur Studie Group (Culture Study Group), the Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging (BBB, White Liberation Movement), the World Preservatist Movement, the Afrikaner Nationalist Socialist Movement, the Kerk van die Verbondsvolk (Church of the People of the Covenant), the Boer Republican Army and The Orde Boerevolk - but since the 1994 elections they have rarely surfaced and may be defunct.
Israel Waarheid (Israel Truth) came to the public's attention in 1997 when four of its members were convicted of bombing a supermarket in Worcester, Western Cape, in December 1996. Four people died and sixty-seven were injured. The groups' followers believe that they are God's chosen people and claim to be one of the two lost tribes of Israel.
A number of Islamist groups have been established in recent years in South Africa. These include: Al Jibad; Da'wah Foundation of South Africa; Environmental Mazaar Action Committee; Foundation for Islamic Tarbiyah; Hizbollah South Africa; Lebanon Alert Action Group; Islamic Unity Convention; Islamic Propagation Centre International; Muslim Alert Network and Muslims against Global Oppression. In addition, People against Drugs and Violence (Padav) and People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) are essentially Muslim organizations.
In terms of influence among the wider population, most Islamist groups are of little consequence, although their impact on the Muslim community cannot be discounted, and moderate leaders are sometimes reluctant to speak out for fear of victimization. Many express hostility towards Israel by means of antisemitic motifs. Concerns that more radical elements within Pagad had agendas beyond drug control proved justified in 1998 when the group was heavily implicated in a number of Cape Town bombings. In a widely reported incident Dr Ebrahim Moosa, a Muslim academic at the University of Cape Town who had been critical of Pagad's leadership, accepted a one-year post in the United States after his home was bombed.
In September 1998 at a march organized by Muslims against Global Oppression in Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal, banners bearing the slogan 'One Zionist, One Bullet' were carried.
In January 1997 several houses in Johannesburg were spray-painted with antisemitic and anti-ANC graffiti.
Also in January 1997 a South African company, ASA/McCarthy/Ranquin, received two antisemitic letters signed by one Elizabeth Mason of California, USA, stating that Jews were vampires who did not deserve to live.
A letter signed by J. M. P. Sherratt was sent to the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and to the TRC warning that Jewish circumcision can result in the sexual transmission of disease. The letter included an additional warning about the transmission of Aids by this means. The letter had previously been brought to the attention of the Council of Kwazulu-Natal Jewry.
A furore erupted in the National Assembly in May 1997 when NP member Dr Willem Odendaal asked Andrew Feinstein of the ANC - after the latter's speech on the South African Revenue Services budget - first if he was a Communist and then if he was a Jew. Odendaal said: 'A Jew and a Communist together - that spells trouble.'
Several Cape Town incidents occurred in July 1997. Several posters depicting Adolf Hitler were found at the Wynberg synagogue, Cape Town, with the following caption: 'Hitler King of the Jews - free our country, kill the Jews'. Another poster read: 'Arabia for the Arabs. Germany for the Germans. Palestine for the Palestinians. Gas chambers for the Jews'. Smaller writing at the bottom said: 'Save the world, kill a Jew'. A firebomb was thrown at the home of Ivan Maron, a member of the Cape Town Jewish community, which is also the Jewish Book Centre. Subsequent telephone threats were received by a Jewish old-age home and the Wynberg synagogue.
It was reported in July 1997 that Professor Makgoba of the University of the Witwatersrand said, in a lecture on 'Blacks in South Africa', that Blacks have nothing to fear from Afrikaans-speakers because they are predictable. Makgoba added that English-speakers and Jews, on the other hand, are a threat because they have ulterior motives. In addition Makgoba's speech apparently promoted the philosophy of Louis Farrakhan (see United States).
In February 1998 a swastika was spray-painted on the wall of a Jewish home in the suburb of Greenside. Soon after it was removed, it was replaced by the word 'Pig'. Also in February swastikas were spray-painted on the windows of Shoshana's Bakery in Glenhazel, Johannesburg.
There were a number of anti-Jewish incidents in the period leading up to the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel in May 1998 (see Effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict).
On 29 April 1998 a Jewish-owned tombstone manufacturing company in a predominantly Muslim area was firebombed.
In May 1998 swastikas were daubed on Crawford College in Pretoria, which was formerly a Jewish day school and still has a large Jewish student body. The words 'Jode vrek!' ('Jews die!') were also daubed on the school (the Afrikaans word 'vrek', which applies exclusively to animals, rather than 'sterf', which applies to humans, was used).
Racist and antisemitic graffitti appeared on a bus stop in Highlands North, Johannesburg, in June 1998.
Education
In January 1998 there was a sports day parade at Sasolburg High School in which a 'Nazi-killing-Jews' theme was adopted as a means of inculcating 'house spirit'. During this parade pupils dressed as Jews were herded along by others dressed as Nazis, 'deloused' and 'shot' while classical music played in the background and a banner reading 'Kill the Kujews' (a play on the word 'Kudus', a type of African antelope and the name of the rival team) was displayed. After the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) met with the governing body of the school, it was agreed that an educational programme on the Holocaust would be presented to the pupils and teachers, and subsequently a team of Jewish educators delivered lectures on the Holocaust to various groups at the school. The headteacher and the school board both apologized unreservedly to the Jewish community.
In May 1998 a rugby match took place between King David and Glenvista schools, in which several of the latter team chanted 'Heil Hitler' and delivered Nazi salutes. The headteacher of the school apologized to the Jewish community and suspended the offenders for the remainder of the season.
In January 1997 a letter sent to a member of the Krugersdorp Jewish community stated that Jews were not exterminated during the Third Reich but were simply used as a source of labour. The letter went on to say that British historians such as David Irving agree that the 'hate campaign against Germany must end' and that Jews must accept the 'truth'. A return address to Erick Meyer of Sterkfontein Caves was included.
A report in the HNP's Die Afrikaner in June 1997 said that a group of South Africans had staged a demonstration outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria for freedom of speech in solidarity with those Germans who had been imprisoned for Holocaust denial (see Germany). Leon Strydom of the HNP (see Parties, organizations, movements) was present at the protest, and posters were carried blaming 'Jewish financial power' for the curtailing of freedom of speech in Germany.
In July 1997 a demonstration was organized by Muslim groups outside the Israeli embassy in Pretoria to protest the leaflet disseminated in June by a Jewish settler in the West Bank in which the Prophet Muhammad was depicted as a pig. Amongst the placards carried was one reading: 'Holocaust is a persecution myth.'
Also in July 1997 Dr Ahmed Huber of Geneva referred to the 'Holocaust swindle' on a programme broadcast on the Cape Town Islamist radio station Radio 786. The SAJBD protested to the ministry of telecommunications and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission. An out-of-court settlement was agreed between the SAJBD and Radio 786, and the station broadcast a public apology acknowledging that Huber's statements contravened paragraph 2 (a) of the Independent Broadcasting Authority Code of Conduct for Broadcasting Services and that his remarks prejudiced relations between sections of the population. Radio 786 stressed that Huber's views had not been endorsed by the station and regretted that they had caused offence to the Jewish community.
A lengthy article which appeared in four instalments in Die Afrikaner in November and December 1998 claimed that the Holocaust was a myth invented by international Jewry as a means of imposing its New World Order on white Christians. This is the most ambitious Holocaust-denial pamphlet to have surfaced since the 1970s, and although the circulation of Die Afrikaner is small there is a concern that the pamphlet might be used as a resource for South African Holocaust-deniers in years to come.
There is evidence that Holocaust denial, long the preserve of the white right, is being increasingly adopted by Islamists as a propaganda tool. A letter, including extracts from the Qu'ran and the works of Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy (see France), was received by the SAJBD in Cape Town in April 1998. Both Garaudy and Jakub Zaki (see below) were the guests of Muslim organizations in Cape Town in July 1998.
Anti-Jewish feeling was particularly marked during the period leading up to the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel in May 1998. During this period marches took place in Cape Town, two of which were organized by the Islamist group Qibla. At one of these demonstrations, on 29 April 1998, Jews attending the Yom Ha'atzmaut ceremony at the Nico Malan theatre were harassed, and slogans like 'One Zionist, One Bullet' were shouted. At another, demonstrators marched on the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town.
In December 1998, immediately following the combined US-UK attack on Baghdad, the Wynberg synagogue in Cape Town was bombed. This resulted in extensive damage to the building but there were fortunately no deaths or injuries as the attack took place in the early hours of the morning.
In an episode of the Afrikaans television programme Egoli broadcast in January 1997 on the national SATV channel, one character was described as 'n regte Jood' (a real Jew) when she was behaving in a miserly manner.
In the same month a pamphlet entitled Protocols Exposed circulated in Cape Town. The pamphlet stated that Jews attempt to hide their real identities in order to disguise the political and economic power which they exercise internationally. Various well-known South African Jews were cited. The pamphlet also characterized the Holocaust as a response by the European nations to Jewish disloyalty and the Jews' financial enslavement of the 'goyim', and not as a persecution of Jews.
Following the discovery that the South African Library in Cape Town had The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on its book-order list in 1997, the Cape Council of the SAJBD requested that the title be deleted from the list.
In February 1997, during a radio phone-in programme on the Palestinian issue hosted by Jon Qwelane broadcast on Radio 702, a Johannesburg station, a caller said that Jews had been the financial supporters of the apartheid regime and that they treat their domestic staff very badly.
In March 1997 an article in the Sunday Times reported that ex-senator Patrick Mogale had branded journalists 'dirty liberal Jews'. The article was about Mogale's appearance in court for refusing to accept financial responsibility for an under-age girl who gave birth to his child in 1992.
In April 1997 a letter published in Die Patriot from the imprisoned A. A. De Kock blamed Jews for the murder of one million White Russians since 1917, and argued that life would be wonderful if Hitler had won the war. De Kock concluded by saying that Jews were responsible for the imprisonment of many of the Boers who are now in jail. In October 1996 De Kock began serving two life sentences and an additional 212 years on 89 counts of violating human rights, including six counts of murder.
In June 1997 an article in Die Afrikaner commented on the appointment of a Jew, Meyer Kahn, as chief executive of the South African Police Services. The article stated that prior to physical attacks on some prominent Jews the Jewish community had not been concerned about crime. Hannes Labuschagne of the HNP stated that the appointment of Kahn from the ranks of 'Jewish financial power' was an act of desperation by the government. Another article appeared in Die Afrikaner during the same month stating that the New World Order served the interests of American-English-Jewish international financial power.
In October 1997, on the national SATV programme Sports Talk, boxing promoter Nick Durant was alleged to have made antisemitic remarks. The statements were subsequently replayed on major news broadcasts: 'All the Jews know each other. I don't trust Jews. I stay very far from Jews and Indians.'
In April 1998 a message purportedly coming from a black South African was sent to the web-site of the Mail and Guardian, a left-leaning weekly. The letter harped on the theme of Jewish power and called on all those previously oppressed by apartheid to unite against their common enemy, the Jews.
On 8 May 1998 the Cape Town Islamist station Radio 786 hosted Dr Yakub Zaki of the Muslim Institute in London (see Holocaust denial). Zaki made numerous overtly antisemitic statements, including references to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the accusation that Jews started the two world wars and denials of the Holocaust. The SAJBD lodged a complaint with the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which is still being considered.
An e-mail was received by Jews for Judaism in September 1998 which read in part: 'Jews will not be around for long. Benladin is here to stay and make sure you kykes [sic] do not take anything else from the Arabs.'
Parliament continues to revise or repeal discriminatory legislation and bring other laws in line with the new constitution. For example, laws which establish racial equality in the provision of child-maintenance grants, provide security against eviction for long-time occupants of rural land and officially repeal the death penalty were passed in 1997.
On 6 January 1997 police arrested three men in connection with three bomb explosions in Rustenburg, north-west of Johannesburg, that had occurred the previous day. The bombs damaged a mosque and a Muslim-owned post office. The suspects, identified as Abraham Myburgh, Jan de Wet and Nicolas Barnard, are members of the neo-Nazi group AWB (see Parties, organizations, movements). They had escaped prison in March 1996 while awaiting sentences on twenty counts of murder and forty-six counts of attempted murder arising from a bombing campaign in 1994. In February the Johannesburg high court sentenced Barnard and Myburgh to fifty years' imprisonment and de Wet to twenty-five.
Terre'Blanche, leader of the neo-Nazi AWB was convicted in April 1997 and sentenced to six years' imprisonment in June 1997 by the Potchefstroom regional court for his assault in March 1996 on Paul Motshabi, a black labourer on Terre'Blanche's farm. His attack had left Motshabi brain-damaged and disabled. Terre'Blanche was also sentenced to one years' imprisonment for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for setting his dog on a black petrol station attendant, also in March 1996. The sentences are to run concurrently.
Widespread condemnation followed the firebombing of the Jewish Book Centre in July 1997 (see Antisemitic incidents). The ANC, the Catholic Bishop's Conference, the Methodist Church of South Africa and Iman Rashied Omar (vice-president of the World Conference on Religion and Peace) all expressed outrage. Omar claimed to speak on behalf of Cape Town's Muslim community. In a letter to the SAJBD President Mandela assured the Jewish community that 'the police are taking every possible step to deal with the incident'.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of the TRC, issued an historic apology in November 1997 on behalf of Christians to South Africa's other faith communities. Tutu, a Nobel Peace Laureate and former head of the Anglican Church in South Africa, apologized, at a TRC hearing before the testimony from the Hindu, Jewish and Muslim communities, for the arrogance of Christians who behaved as though theirs was the only religion. Tutu said: 'We claim arrogantly, a claim that is difficult to justify, that this is a Christian country.' He added: 'The experience we have had in the world is that those who have claimed to be these [Christian countries] have not usually excelled. It was Christians who supported Nazism. It is Christian fighting fellow Christian in Northern Ireland . . . Christians do not have a monopoly on God.'
An official of the Dutch Reformed Church, Freek Swanepoel, also apologized in November 1997 before the TRC for having taught followers that the racial separation policies of apartheid in South Africa had been biblically ordained. The church previously had separate branches for white, black and mixed-race worshippers. Swanepoel said: 'We have indeed taught our people wrongly with regard to apartheid as a biblical instruction. In this regard, certainly, the church must confess that it is guilty.'
Institute for Jewish Policy Research and American Jewish Committee
© JPR 1999
