Justice minister is failing in his duty to curb anti-Semitism in SA
Why are victims of hate being told they are simply imagining it all?
South African Jewry are perplexed by justice & correctional services minister Ronald Lamola’s persistent refusal to believe there has been a rise in anti-Semitism in South Africa. On local and international media platforms, the minister has vehemently denied anti-Semitism statistics have increased, even labelling them a “figment of the imagination”.
Why are victims of hate being told they are simply imagining it all? This is not the case with campaigns calling for those who say they have been subjected to racist behaviour to be listened to. When it comes to anti-Jewish hate crimes, however, we have the head of a ministry whose core responsibility is protecting victims of hate crime refusing to believe this could be happening.
You would think a justice minister would want to learn about the situation on the ground. Lamola could easily have reached out to the South African Jewish community to find out about the anti-Semitic incidents they are experiencing. However, he instead chooses to discredit them and deny their claims.
Previously when people made racist statements there was widespread outrage and our legal system sprang into action to ensure the offenders were castigated and punished. However, Lamola does not merely ignore the anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred, he denies them outright.
In an interview with talk radio station 702’s
Clement Manyathela this week, Lamola doubled down on his anti-Semitism denialism. “This is a nonsense. It must be really dismissed. It has never been reported to any law enforcement authority in South Africa that there is such a thing,” he declared.
How could the minister make this statement without doing any investigations? At no point has he reached out to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and asked to see our anti-Semitism report for last year. He has made no enquiries about the more than 200 incidents recorded during that period. He has not asked who was targeted and what kinds of assaults took place. For the record, the attacks included a community member being assaulted outside a synagogue, a rabbi being attacked in Johannesburg, a community member being beaten in KwaZulu-Natal, and a Jewish person being hit over the head with a flagpole in Cape Town.
In addition to being common-law offences, these attacks also amount to “hate crimes”, which in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act are offences motivated by prejudice or intolerance based on religion and ethnicity. It is difficult enough for victims of such crimes to obtain redress given the apathy of the authorities in such matters, but the justice minister’s dismissive attitude will hardly help the situation. It is also astounding that
Lamola should insist that no cases of anti-Semitism have been reported to the police. We have the case numbers for these incidents and would have been more than happy to share them, had he asked.
Lamola could have learnt about the rise in antiSemitism in the country by engaging with his counterparts in the ministry of state security, who are fully aware of the issue. He could have liaised with the national police commissioner and senior police officers, who have been fully briefed on the incidents.
Furthermore, the minister should have consulted with his own leader. In a meeting with the SAJBD leadership held on December 13, President Cyril Ramaphosa was told about the increase in antiSemitism in South Africa. After this briefing, the president put out a media statement that said: “The president further emphasised the government’s denunciation of anti-Semitic behaviour towards Jewish people in South Africa, including the boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, and Islamophobia. President Ramaphosa called on all South Africans to remain true to the tenets of the country’s constitution.”
It is a pity that these worthy sentiments were not followed up with meaningful action on Ramaphosa’s part. Certainly, one might have expected him to discuss the matter with his own justice minister, who then presumably would not have discredited himself by making public comments that are demonstrably
untrue. That said, Ramaphosa at least recognised that our country’s rising rates of anti-Semitism are a problem that needed to be taken seriously. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Lamola.
We are not accusing the government itself of perpetrating anti-Semitic hate crimes, as Lamola incorrectly claimed. However, a climate of hostility has been fostered in the country that has allowed them to thrive.
All over the world, we have seen governments rally behind their countries’ Jewish communities at a time where they are coming under unprecedented attack. We would have hoped that South Africa’s justice minister would also have been willing to reach out to those being targeted.
After all, it is his ministry that is responsible for fighting hatred in our country. Those who deal with victims of hate crimes, including anti-Semitism, should provide them with support and not engage in uninform denialism.
They should give victims the assistance they need to respond to these unlawful attacks on their fundamental rights to safety, dignity and equality. Unfortunately, as far as South Africa’s Jewish citizens are concerned, Lamola is signally failing to fulfil these responsibilities.