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Former African Union Chairperson, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, will deliver a Palestine solidarity lecture in Rustenburg on Monday 27 March 2017 at 14h00 as part of this year's annual #IsraeliApartheidWeek (IAW) campaign.

The event, to be held at Ben Marais Hall (Cnr. Middel and Beneden Road, Rustenburg), will be hosted by the ANC in Rustenburg (Bojanala Region), the ANC Women’s League, the Embassy of Palestine in South Africa and the Palestine solidarity and human rights organization BDS South Africa. Other speakers include the Executive Mayor of Rustenburg and ANC PEC member Mpho Khunou, Ambassador of Palestine Hashem Dajani and BDS SA Board Member Professor Farid Esack. All members of the media and the public are invited.

Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is an NEC member of South Africa’s governing ANC party. She was previously appointed by President Nelson Mandela as Minister of Health from 1994 to 1999. She was also the country’s longest serving Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2009, under presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe. In 2012 Dlamini-Zuma was elected Chairperson of the African Union Commission, making her the first woman to lead the organisation until her term ended on 30 January 2017.

In 2002 Dlamini-Zuma led a Non Aligned Movement (NAM) delegation to Ramallah to meet, among others, Palestine Liberation Organization  (PLO) leader, Comrade Yasser Arafat. The intention of the visit was as a "show of solidarity with President Arafat and the Palestinian people".

Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, inline with ANC policy and resolutions on Palestine as well as the ANC's endorsement of the #IsraeliApartheidWeek campaign, joins a growing list of ANC leaders to address IAW including: National Chairperson Baleka Mbete, DSG Jessie Duarte, Former ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, ANC NEC members Nomvula Mokonyane, Obed Bapela, Baleka Mbete, Malusi Gigaba, Sidumo Dlamini, Thulas Nxesi, Blade Ndzimande, David Mahlobo, Ayanda Dlodlo, Mcebisi Skwatcha and many others. Click here for ANC’s resolutions, positions and policies on Palestine.

#IsraeliApartheidWeek is an annual international series of self-organized events held in over 250 cities, communities and campuses across the globe. IAW raises awareness of Israel's apartheid policies towards the indigenous Palestinians. Israel's discriminatory policies are also increasingly affecting Africans (click here for more info on Israel's "War against Africans").

IAW is endorsed, in South Africa alone, by more than 105 organizations, trade unions, embassies, youth movements and other groups including South Africa's governing party, the country's largest student formation and SA's largest trade union federation. To date, this year, there have been over 150 successful #IsraeliApartheidWeek events (in South Africa alone) and the campaign in SA had to be extended till the end of March to accommodate the increased IAW activities, events and actions.

Issued by BDS SOUTH AFRICA