South African minister: We will arrest citizens who return from IDF service

South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor suggested in a speech last week that South Africans who have served in the IDF could be arrested upon returning to the country.

“I’ve already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and who are fighting alongside or in the IDF [sic] that we are ready when you come home; we’re going to arrest you,” Pandor said, to raucous applause.

The minister was speaking at an event held by her party, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), on the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In response to the statements, which were made last week but were circulating online and in the Israeli media on Wednesday, MK Yulia Malinovsky of Yisrael Beiteinu wrote on X, “Why is the foreign ministry silent? Why do we still have diplomatic relations with South Africa?” adding, “After everything that happened The Hague.”

Reached for comment hours before his return to Gaza, one South African IDF soldier called the ANC’s proposal “completely illegal,” citing the country’s constitution.

“I think that South Africa has gotten to the point where it’s crumbling, [and] the ANC isn’t doing anything in their power to save the country, but would rather take money from Iran,” said the soldier, who preferred to remain anonymous due to concerns for his family in South Africa.

“The whole assessment, the whole thing of taking us to The Hague, is all because they were given money from Iran,” he went on, citing the Islamic Republic’s admission in 2023 to BRICS, the intergovernmental organization of which South Africa is one of nine member states.

“Now they’re just pushing it even further, because they’ve dug themselves into a hole that they can’t crawl out of.”

South Africa made global headlines last fall when it filed a case in the International Court of Justice alleging that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The suit requested that the court demand Israel cease fighting there. 

The court has not yet ruled on the merits of the case but declined to make such a demand, instead issuing a series of directives that essentially demanded Israel observe its existing obligations under the Genocide Convention and report to the court on its doing so. 

Minister on supporting Hamas: I can't do that, I'm in the government

In her remarks, Pandor also addressed the question of what resolution to the conflict South Africa ultimately endorses and whether she, as a minister, would express support for Hamas, the terror group that, having governed Gaza since 2006, started the current war with its invasion of Israel’s south on October 7.

“Firstly, the policy of the ANC government has always been that we support a two-state solution,” Pandor said, “that Palestine and Israel should be two nation-states, living side by side in peace and security. 

“In the final analysis, however, what eventually obtains will be determined by the people of Palestine,” she then added, calling such a distinction “very, very important” to recognize. 

“In terms of our foreign policy,” Pandor said, “our foreign policy promotes peace and negotiation. And I cannot— I cannot— criticize Israel for killing women and children, brutally, and then say I praise Hamas for holding innocent Israelis hostage.”

“We can’t do that,” Pandor went on, adding, “You can do it. You are an activist on the ground. I am a member of the government.” He then told the crowd, “I, as a government member, cannot be saying that. Don’t expect me to say what you say.”

Hamas and Israel are currently engaged in ongoing hostage negotiations, as the terror group and its allies hold 134 Israelis captive in Gaza. 

In November, several weeks into the IDF’s ground invasion of the Strip, Hamas turned over 110 hostages, all of them women and children, in exchange for a limited ceasefire and the release from Israeli jails of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners.