ANC Panics on Israel Helping Poor Communities

South Africa has declared Israel’s top diplomat in Pretoria, Ariel Seidman, persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 72 hours.

The move follows a short chain of events tied to the Eastern Cape. AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo visited Israel in early December 2025, and in the weeks after that visit, senior Israeli officials travelled to the Eastern Cape to offer practical support to poor communities and institutions plagued by failed service delivery

On Tuesday, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane issued an official statement saying he learned “with shock and with serious concern” of “the recent visit by officials of the Embassy of Israel to public institutions within the province, including healthcare facilities and Walter Sisulu University, without the knowledge, consent, or support of the provincial government”.

On Friday, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) escalated the dispute into an expulsion order. It called the step “a decisive measure” after “a series of unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty”, citing “the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks against His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa” and “a deliberate failure to inform DIRCO of purported visits by senior Israeli officials”, before stating that Seidman “is required to depart from the Republic within 72 hours”.

Fikile Mbalula, the secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC), also attacked the king’s Israel trip, saying, “If he went to Israel and Palestine we would understand. But to insult the cause of the Palestinians in Israel is a betrayal.”

Sources told The Common Sense that the ANC was panicked by the Israeli effort to expand a service delivery programme in the Eastern Cape and the positive reception to that programme by communities.

The ANC feared that positive imagery of ordinary South Africans co-operating with Israelis would be very damaging to the Government's hostile foreign policy towards Israel.

The implications for South Africa will be extensive far beyond the Eastern Cape and the Middle East. The move against Israel is likely to make it even harder for South Africa to improve trade and economic relations with the United States, prospects for inclusion under a new AGOA deal have been further undermined, and the prospects for sanctions have lifted.