Advocates want ANC probed over bribe claims

AS SOUTH Africa returned to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop the Gaza war, a group of lawyers want the ANC to be investigated for allegedly receiving bribes from Iran.

On Thursday, Israeli daily newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported that a group of 160 lawyers, led by the Israeli law centre Shurat Hadin called on US secretary of state Antony Blinken, the justice department and congressional leaders to probe South African leaders.

They reportedly want the ANC to be probed under the Magnitsky Act for allegedly participating in acts of significant corruption involving bribery.

The act allows the office of foreign assets control, a US treasury department financial intelligence agency, to blacklist an individual or entity and block all of its assets in the US or in possession or control of Americans.

They claim officials accepted bribes from Iran that were intended to cover ANC debts in return for which party members agreed to pursue the case at the ICJ, blaming Israel for committing genocide in Gaza.

Their letter highlights numerous meetings between officials of the Islamic Republic and South Africa, especially after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

The ANC was unavailable for comment regarding the allegations.

South Africa’s ambassador, Vusimuzi Madonsela, told judges of the International Court of Justice: “Israel’s genocide has continued apace and has just reached a new and horrific stage.”

The Department of International Relations and Co-operation’s director-general, Zane Dangor, said South Africa’s ICJ application sought an explicit order to force Israel to stop its genocidal acts in Rafah and Gaza in Palestine.

The country returned to the ICJ in Geneva, Switzerland, this week for the third time to ask for provisional orders against Israel.

“The court must explicitly state that Israel must stop its genocidal acts in Rafah, that it must stop its genocidal acts in Gaza,” Dangor said.

Dangor said South Africa was asking for provisional orders because the situation in the whole of Gaza, but in particular in Rafah, had changed drastically since the last time the matter came to the ICJ.

“What we see is the genocidal acts intensifying. We are seeing the killings intensifying and our legal team has demonstrated the facts on these changing circumstances, including the genocidal acts in both Rafah and Gaza,” Dangor said.

He said what the country was asking for is the ICJ to use its powers to stop the carnage in Gaza and use its powers in an unambiguous way to stop it.

“Our legal team is pointing out we should not depend on such a ceasefire to come through political negotiations because it’s not happening or through some action of the (United Nations) security council because it’s not happening,” Dangor said.

“We are asking that the court use its powers that have been conferred upon it through the Genocide Convention to order the acts of genocide to end and that include an explicit order for the cessation of hostilities.”

This week, Wits University students protested under the banner of the Socialist Youth Movement against the genocidal onslaught that Israel has waged against the Palestinian people in Gaza.