GNU MPs’ ‘fact-finding’ trip to Israel likely to deepen political tensions

Democratic Alliance (DA) and Patriotic Alliance (PA) MPs have embarked on a “fact-finding mission” to Israel, which appears to include a meeting with the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.

The news is likely to set an already tense Government of National Unity (GNU) further on edge, given the hostility between the State of Israel and the ANC.

In an 11-minute Facebook video recorded in Israel and posted on around Sunday, 6 April, PA MP Ashley Sauls told his followers: “We’ve already met a governor; we’re going to meet the president. We’re not going to meet the prime minister, [Benjamin] Netanhayu, but we are going to meet the president, so keep your fingers crossed.”

Sauls referenced travelling with fellow PA MP Millicent Mathopa and posted a picture of the two in front of a building featuring Hebrew script.

Good party questions purpose of trip 

The trip was brought to light by Good MP Brett Herron, who suggested in a statement on Wednesday that the delegation’s visit was characterised by a “concerted effort to avoid publicity”.

Herron alleged that other participants in the trip included DA MPs Nicholas Myburgh and Bridget Masango. Contacted by Daily Maverick, Herron said that he had received a tip-off from a reputable source and had documentary evidence which he could not share.

“Myburgh serves as a member of Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, while Masango chairs the portfolio committee on social development,” said Herron.

Questions to Myburgh and Masango went unanswered on Wednesday.

DA spokesperson Willie Aucamp, however, did not dispute that DA MPs were on the trip.

“The trip was arranged and attended by individuals in their private capacity and not through the party,” Aucamp told Daily Maverick.

“We do not monitor the private trips of members. We therefore are not in a position to provide details of the trip.”

Herron suggested that the trip had deliberately been kept low profile.

“Details of the South African visit — such as who paid, who the delegation has met, its political objectives, whether the South African government or Parliament were informed and the date of its return — are unknown.”

It is unclear which group organised the trip to Israel. Daily Maverick is aware that the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) was attempting to organise a trip to Israel for South African journalists, which was slated to commence in the first week of April.

The SAJBD’s Charisse Zeifert told Daily Maverick on Wednesday, however, that the board had not organised the trip in which MPs participated.

Sauls did not respond to questions from Daily Maverick on Wednesday and neither did PA spokesperson Steve Motale.

Only details forthcoming from Sauls’ videos 

In two videos posted to Facebook over the past few days, Sauls seemed primarily keen to defend criticism of his participation in what he called a fact-finding mission: “We came on a fact-finding mission, whether you see it as necessary or not,” he said.

He told followers that the delegation had landed in Tel Aviv, but at one point had spent the day in Palestine.

“Just so you know, Israel is willing to host Muslims from South Africa who want to come see for themselves,” he said.

Saul said that he and fellow PA MP Mathopa were there with the blessing of the PA president, Gayton McKenzie, and his deputy, Kenny Kunene.

At one stage, he brought out a framed map of Israel, which on the bottom appeared to bear the name of Yossi Dagan, a far-right Israeli politician who is known to have strong links to the White House and was an honoured guest at President Donald Trump’s 2016 inauguration.

As recently as mid-March, Dagan visited Washington to hold bipartisan meetings to drum up support for “applying Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria”, which is a euphemism for “occupying the West Bank”.

Israeli news outlet Haaretz has named Dagan as one of the “key Likud figures” whose desires outstrip the Israeli government’s declared goals, calling for “the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip, the expulsion of its Palestinian population and the establishment of Jewish settlements in place of the Palestinian cities and villages that the military has destroyed”.

Dagan is the “Samaria Council governor”, raising the possibility that he may have been the “governor” Sauls said the delegation had already met.

Trip will cause controversy in GNU 

The idea that this visit may have had an explicitly political dimension is likely to cause further tension in a GNU already hanging on by a thread. This is particularly the case given the likelihood that the Trump administration’s animosity to Pretoria may be primarily a result of South Africa’s approach to the International Court of Justice over Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) officials are likely to be keen to hear what message these South African politicians are bringing to their Israeli counterparts, and in what capacity.

Comment from Dirco will be added when received.

Questions to the South African Parliament as to whether this was an official parliamentary delegation went unanswered on Wednesday, but there is no record of it on the parliamentary programme and the chances of this are extremely unlikely.

In November 2023, the National Assembly adopted a motion calling for the government to “suspend all diplomatic relations with Israel until a ceasefire is agreed to by Israel and Israel commits to binding United Nations-facilitated negotiations whose outcome must be a just, sustainable and lasting peace”.

The motion, which was brought by the EFF, passed by 284 votes to 91. It was opposed by the IFP, the ACDP, the Freedom Front Plus and the DA. The PA was not yet represented in Parliament.

Herron said: “Certain members of the Parliament, who are part of the Government of National Unity, are confused about whether they are members of the government or opposition… At a time of extreme geopolitical and economic turbulence, members of the government should know that the constituency they should serve is all the people of South Africa, not their party constituencies.” DM