SA must raise its voice in defence of Sudanese as it did for Palestinians
South Africa’s principled and courageous swim against the Western tide to lay criminal charges against Israel for perpetrating genocide in Gaza was rightly praised by believers in equal human rights across the world.
While taking Israel to the International Court of Justice may not have been good for bilateral relations with the United States, on the positive side it restored some of South Africa’s fading global stature as a progressive force for equality and justice. The ICJ’s judgement is still awaited; win or lose, South Africa will ultimately be adjudged as being on the right side of history.
Why then has South Africa been so mildly condemnatory and banally diplomatic in its response to ongoing barbarism in Sudan? There, as in the Holy Land, civilians are being blockaded, slaughtered, deprived of humanitarian aid, and increasingly facing famine.
The United Nations reported yesterday that on recent analysis more than 21 million people across Sudan are facing high levels of acute food insecurity – “the largest such crisis in the world”.
“Famine conditions are ongoing in El Fasher, North Darfur, and in Kadugli, South Kordofan, where families are trapped and surviving on leaves, animal feed and grass,” the UN’s news service said.
The challenge for the UN is that it has a perpetual spoke in its wheel due to its own antiquated systems that hinder its ability to reach consensus on just about anything of consequence. The UN was blocked from acting to stop the Gaza genocide by the US using its veto power. In Sudan its hands are tied by global indifference. Sudan, after all, lacks perceived geo-political or economic significance.
On the basis that evil flourishes when good people do nothing, my appeal on behalf of the Archbishop Tutu Intellectual Property Trust to the South African government is to be seen to be stepping up and raising its voice for the Sudanese people… to be seen to be leading. And, to build on its global advocacy for human rights.
Eleven years ago, in an opinion piece on the then-conflict in South Sudan published by AlJazeera.com, the late Archbishop Tutu wrote: “God is weeping because people were made for inter-dependence and love. Hatred is not a natural condition; it is manufactured and propagated by people. It is a condition that can be turned on its head by good leaders.”
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Statement from DR MAMPHELA RAMPHELE, Chair of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust. Distributed for the Trust by Benny Gool 082 5566 556/Roger Friedman 079 8966 899.