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Mainstream Media Coverage on Francesca Albanese in South Africa Requires More Than a Footnote

“And will there be consequences for local actors, especially the legal team who conspired in the hoax to sabotage Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Annual event featuring Albanese?” 

 

 By Iqbal Jassat 

 

In his report on the annual event hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) which featured UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, Sunday Times journalist Hendrik Hanke provided a short but succinct account of her powerful speech. (Sunday Times, October 26,2025)

Though readers have expected wider coverage of Albanese’s whirlwind tour of South Africa, including the crucial forays she made at a number of public events in Soweto and elsewhere, one hopes that her message to South Africa – civil society, media and government – will not be confined to a few paltry columns, as her engagements continue across various provinces.

One is aware that Israel’s freak pressure groups in South Africa who are unapologetic deniers of the Gaza genocide, are hopping mad and losing their marbles in the process. Stunts to disrupt her tour have not only backfired, but have reinforced Albanese’s credibility as a fearless advocate of truth, courage and justice.

Naledi Pandor, former international relations minister under whose term South Africa initiated its groundbreaking legal genocide challenge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and current chair of the NMF, received a huge round of applause when she introduced Albanese as a woman on “conscience and courage”.

And in response to Zionist critics who led a propaganda campaign against the NMF, Pandor was forthright in denouncing their false claim about being “weaponised” for hosting Albanese.

“Nelson Mandela was an incredible weapon. We honour him by using his legacy to confront power,” said Pandor.

The urgency Albanese pleaded for further comprehensive interventions is underlined in the emphasis she placed on the word “apocalyptic”.

“Two years after the beginning of the genocide, and despite the ceasefire, the situation in (Gaza) remains nothing short of apocalyptic. I use the term deliberately,” said Albanese.

To ignore or downplay the significance of her call for action, or to have rogue elements within the justice ministry work in cahoots with Pro-Genocide Israeli lobbyists attempt to sabotage the NMF event, would be tantamount to normalising the genocide.

The irregular attempt to derail the NMF event by serving court documents on Albanese was swiftly halted. In a statement issued by Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, she said an official in her department had acted without authorisation and that the action was in conflict with legal process. She offered an unconditional apology to Albanese, the NMF and the United Nations.

Because this was a futile breach of the judicial system, it cannot end in an apology. There has to be severe consequences for the local actors, especially the legal team who had conspired in the hoax. Though the unidentified official is likely to be disciplined for overstepping due process in facilitating the hoax, it is imperative to name, shame and hold accountable the entire chain of characters.

Reminding us that “Gaza is a wasteland of rubble, refuse, and human remains, where survivors cling to life amid disease, deprivation, and the relentless weight of violence unseen anywhere this century”, Albanese emphasised the harsh reality resulting from Israel’s criminal war crimes.

Indeed, as she spelled out, the ongoing genocide which is undeniably visible in the totality of Israel’s criminal conduct, did not emerge in a vacuum. It has been “meticulously prepared over decades, and enabled by long-standing violations, impunity, and international complicity”.

The sheer power of her words at the various settings where Albanese has been hosted to rousing applauses, will be impossible to ignore or act upon.

“With nowhere to flee and nothing to return to excruciating suffering is widespread, systematic and by design. Even during the fragile ceasefire, it continues. The century long slow colonisation of Palestine has accelerated in a vicious campaign of destruction where the erasure of the indigenous people is the end goal. This is a textbook case of genocide. It unfolds piece by piece, decade by decade, crime after crime. The occupation of Palestine must be understood as a project of broader domination.”

Against the backdrop of economic, diplomatic and political pressure by the Trump administration and local pro-Israel lackeys on South Africa to withdraw from the ICJ complaint; suspend ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran; ban Hamas and punish supporters of Palestine’s resistance, it is crucial to be reminded by Albanese about the right to resist.

At a packed event at the Groote Kerk in Cape Town, Hasina Kathrada’s report on it highlighted that quoting the ICJ’s 2004 advisory opinion, Albanese reminded the audience: “The right of self-defence cannot be claimed by an occupier against those whose land it occupies.”

“The right to resist,” she continued, “is a codified act of decolonisation. People who resist oppression have a high and unique right. This is what the law says.”

Equally impactful is the presentation of her report “Gaza Genocide: Collective Crime” to the UN General Assembly from The Desmond and Leah Foundation in Cape Town.

According to Kathrada, the report examines the complicity of third states in “the ongoing genocide in Gaza”, arguing that military, economic, diplomatic and even “humanitarian”, support for Israel has enabled its prolonged and systematic violations of international law.

As for South Africa’s moral stance in opposing the genocide, which Albanese heralded as a return of the moral peace in the world, noting that the country stood out as one of the few nations willing to act from the principles it once fought for.

Her challenge however is to stop exporting coal, stop economic cooperation, and to “stop this complicity.”

Iqbal Jassat

Executive Member

Media Review Network

Johannesburg

South Africa

 

 

 

Iqbal Jassat
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