PRESS INVITE: South African Civil Society to protest ahead of Ramaphosa’s upcoming State of the Nation Address (SONA)

South African civil society will hold a Palestine solidarity protest ahead of the upcoming State of the Nation Address (SONA) to be delivered by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The picket is in support of the South African government’s firm stance against Israeli Apartheid and in protest against US President Donald Trump’s recent Apartheid Israel plan.

Last month US President Donald Trump, who once referred to African nations as “shit-hole countries”, announced a plan that he intends to impose on Palestine. A deal wherein indigenous Palestinians would be restricted to tiny Bantustans on a fraction of their historic homeland. The plan has rightly been rejected by Palestinians, progressive Jewish Israelis and countries across the world including South Africa. 

The picket, which will start at 2pm on Wednesday 12 February outside the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town, will be hosted and addressed by BDS South Africa, MJC, ANC, SACP, COSATU, NEHAWU, Embassy of Palestine, ANC YL, YCL, FOCUS, KZN PSF, SAF-K, Al Quds Foundation, Media Review Network and various others. 

On the eve of his State of the Nation Address (SONA), we are calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to strengthen our government’s firm stance against Israel’s Apartheid regime. Ramaphosa has previously compared Apartheid South Africa to the situation that Palestinians are living under saying: “As long as that struggle persists we will be on the side of the Palestinians…we will always be on the right side because we know what is happening there, its gross apartheid taking place there and we cannot but countenance a situation which is a duplicate or replica of what we went through, that we are not going to apologise for.”

ISSUED BY TISETSO MAGAMA ON BEHALF OF BDS SOUTH AFRICA

National Spokesperson, Tisetso Magama: +27 (0) 614146348
National Coordinator: Muhammed Desai: +27 (0) 842119988