Singing Cats and the Future of South Africa–Israel Relations

The Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concert series is one of the highlights of Cape Town’s festive season. Every week during the period, South Africa’s top acts share their creations with thousands of revellers on the rolling lawns of the country’s premier botanical garden, set against the foothills of its most iconic mountain.

Attendees at the 2025 edition also witnessed something else – a glimpse into the future of South Africa–Israel relations. This came courtesy of the inclusion in the lineup of David Scott (better known as The Kiffness), a Cape Town-based musician whose internet mash-up videos, most famously featuring singing cats, were viewed over a billion times last year.

On the face of it, The Kiffness is an odd figure through whom to examine the dynamics of such a relationship. He is not Jewish and has never visited Israel. What he does have, however, are opinions, and he is happy to share them, both through his music and on his X account.

These views range across issues such as the African National Congress (ANC), Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), Covid, and free speech. In his commentary, he has also criticised Dr Naledi Pandor and Imtiaz Sooliman for their conduct and statements following Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

These views were enough to prompt a rage among anti-Israel groups; enough for them to launch a campaign against him. The process began with a smear operation on X, with several left-wing accounts attacking The Kiffness. One of these belonged to an employee of the Black Sash, who went as far as to dox his mother. Slowly, the campaign gained traction, with a handful of political accounts and a few B-grade celebrities joining in.

On the whole, however, the campaign was rejected by users on the platform. Hundreds of comments pointed out that, if people disliked The Kiffness and his political views, they could simply choose not to attend the concert. Commentators from the classical liberal and conservative ends of the spectrum also pushed back against the online pile-on.

Attempted cancellation

Typically, when anti-Israel groups attempt to cancel someone, they go for soft targets, academics, small entrepreneurs, or cultural workers, such as filmmakers, all of whom are vulnerable to reputational damage caused by coordinated online harassment. The Kiffness was different, not only because of his reach and popularity, but because he is genuinely financially independent and not reliant on corporate or institutional backing. When it became clear that he would not retract his statements, anti-Israel groups changed tack and targeted Kirstenbosch gardens itself, launching what they termed a “knitting protest” (I don't know what that is either), in the hope that he would be barred from performing.

Here, The Kiffness may have had reason for concern. Kirstenbosch is run by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), which falls under the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, making it theoretically susceptible to political pressure. Indeed, The Kiffness later revealed that SANBI had received a call from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) to cancel the concert.

If this sounds implausible, one should recall that in 2021 South Africans were subjected to a month-long public pressure campaign by the late arts and culture minister, Nkosinathi Mthethwa, over Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane’s decision to attend the Miss Universe pageant in Israel. (She ignored him and came third.)

Had the SANBI been under ANC control, cancellation, along with a major public uproar and possible legal action, might well have followed. But times have changed. The department is now headed by a minister from the Democratic Alliance: first Dion George and now Willie Aucamp. Neither appeared willing to tolerate such an imposition on free speech and free association, and the demands of protesters were simply ignored.

Anti-Israel groups attempted to escalate public pressure by announcing weekly protests outside Kirstenbosch. These were dismal failures, never attracting more than 30 people. One investigative YouTuber who attended a protest encountered just five individuals, including a child-abuse suspect and a man who hurled racist epithets at his cameraman.

With no official statement from SANBI, the only outlets reporting on the controversy were tabloids at Independent Online, whose increasingly hysterical coverage culminated in a blatantly false headline claiming the concert had been cancelled, later deleted from X. SANBI eventually issued a circular to attendees noting increased security and bag checks at the event.

At that point, it was clear the campaign had collapsed. The protest was abandoned, and the concert went ahead without incident, packed with enthusiastic fans, many of whom bought tickets precisely because of the controversy. Instead of a national crisis, South Africa was left with little more than an unpleasant online kerfuffle.

Yet this episode goes far beyond the successful defence of a cat-memeing musician. It reveals a deeper shift in how South Africa–Israel relations may evolve.

As I have argued previously, where the ANC no longer holds power, a degree of normality has returned to governance. Nowhere is this clearer than in the trajectory of South Africa–Israel relations.

Examples

Consider the following examples.

The ANC quietly abandoned its campaign to rename Sandton Drive after Leila Khaled, the Palestinian plane hijacker responsible for the deaths of 17 Christian pilgrims. The plan was shelved due to a combination of policy violations, city rules which prohibit naming streets after divisive figures, and public outrage, including pressure from the United States, which has its consulate on the street. ANC coalition partners in Johannesburg, including the Patriotic Alliance and ActionSA, made it clear they would not support the proposal to rename the street.

Then there are reports that, since the launch of a new anti-Israel campaign in 2024 aimed at preventing South African coal exports to Israel, such exports have actually increased by 90%. The reason is simple, Israel’s other major coal supplier, Colombia, has instituted a boycott and South African coal companies happily stepped in to fill the gap. It is worth noting that several of these companies are owned by some of the most politically connected BEE businessmen in the country.

Finally, there is the case of the Gazan refugee flights that arrived at the end of 2025 amid a public outcry. Palestinian groups demanded that the Minister of Home Affairs, Leon Schreiber, halt the flights. Schreiber responded like any politically astute politician, he nodded gravely along with activist talking points, some of them demonstrably false, before promptly revoking the 90-day visa exemption that had recently been extended to Palestinian travellers. This was not what the activists had in mind, and they responded with a barrage of criticism, but by then it was too late.

Objectively, a Palestinian visa exemption is a bad idea. It was introduced in 2021 following pressure from ANC-aligned pro-Palestinian groups. Palestinian society contains multiple violent extremist organisations, not only Hamas, but Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others, which until recently could enter South Africa with minimal scrutiny. Revoking the exemption is simply common sense in the interest of South African public safety.

What these examples and others like them demonstrate is that, when given the choice, the ANC consistently prioritises Palestinian interests over those of South Africans. When the ANC is removed from power, the result is not an immediate shift toward pro-Israel policy, but rather a recentring of South African interests, whether that concerns musicians facing free speech violations or coal miners whose livelihoods are at stake.

Taking note

Politicians and activists are beginning to take note. A Palestinian research NGO recently warned that “the ANC’s decline signals a growing reliance on coalition politics, in which smaller parties can wield disproportionate influence. As the ANC’s dominance weakens, pro-Israel groups among these smaller parties are gaining greater leverage. These parties do not have to oppose such legislation outright, simply not backing it can weaken the ANC’s position.”

In response to public apathy and the ANC’s decline, anti-Israel groups have begun pivoting toward more coercive strategies, including attempts to criminalise engagement with Israel altogether, an effort to bypass democratic resistance.

There is a saying that one should never make predictions, especially about the future. This is doubly true in South Africa and triply so when the Middle East is involved. There are still many ways in which South Africa–Israel relations, along with the rest of democratic world, could be damaged irreparably.

DIRCO remains in the hands of ideological hardliners and President Cyril Ramaphosa continues to favour an extremist posture on the Palestinian issue. But what a few singing cats at Kirstenbosch have shown is that, without the ANC’s dominance, domestic support for these positions wanes. If the party continues to decline, the character of this debate in South African public life is set to change.