The South African Students Congress (Sasco) has accused Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng of abusing his position to support the violation of human rights by Israel. 

“As students of South Africa, we cannot be silent when the head of one of our arms of state abuses his position to support the violation of human rights in another country,” said Sasco president Bamanye Matiwane. 

“As a progressive student movement that values deeply the principle of progressive international solidarity, Sasco calls on all students and progressive forces in civil society to support the call for the chief justice to retract his statement of support for apartheid Israel.” 

Furthermore, the students' organisation demanded that Chief Justice Mogoeng should recuse himself from the case pitting trade union federation Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) against the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), which Sasco said is before him at the Constitutional Court “as he is clearly compromised and cannot provide an unbiased judgment in this case”. 

Chief Justice Mogoeng was this week in a line-up of The Jerusalem Post’s “exclusive webinar”, which also featured South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein and was moderated by the Jerusalem Post’s editor-in-chief, Yaakov Katz. 

Among other remarks, Chief Justice Mogoeng, a staunch Christian, said during the Jerusalem Post virtual conference: “The first verse I give is in Psalms 122 verse 6, which says: ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee.' Also Genesis 12 verses 1 to 3 says to me as a Christian, if I curse Abraham and Israel, the Almighty God will curse me, too. So, I am under an obligation as a Christian to love Israel, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, which actually means the peace of Israel. I cannot, as a Christian, do anything other than love and pray for Israel because I know hatred for Israel by me and my nation can only attract unprecedented curses upon our nation.” 

"I think as a citizen of this country, we are denying ourselves a wonderful opportunity of being game-changers in the Israeli–Palestinian situation. We know what it means to be at loggerheads, to be a nation at war with itself,” Chief Justice Mogoeng said.

The chief justice’s sentiments have degenerated into a major fallout, with South African member of Parliament and grandson of former president Nelson Mandela, Nkosi Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council, on Friday calling on Chief Justice Mogoeng to retract his statements expressing his apparent support for “apartheid Israel”. 

“We call on Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng to retract statements attributed to him by Jerusalem Times (Jerusalem Post) supporting apartheid Israel. We request him to uphold Madiba's legacy of standing for human rights and unreservedly supporting the struggle of oppressed peoples and those living under occupation all over the world,” said Nkosi Zwelivelile. 

“President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela's support for the struggle of Palestinian people living for 72 years under apartheid Israel's occupation was unequivocal and the gravity of their struggle has been memorialised in his historic words when he said: 'We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.'" 

Nkosi Zwelivelile said the statements by the chief justice have done South Africa's standing in the international community “a great disservice and detracted from our principled stand against apartheid Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people”. 

Nkosi Zwelivelile said if Chief Justice Mogoeng stands by his sentiments on Israel, then he should step down as South Africa’s chief justice. 

“If in all good conscience he stands by the statements attributed to him and he indeed supports apartheid Israel and its gross violation of international law, he should do the honourable thing and step down from his position as the ultimate arbiter of justice in South Africa.” 

On Thursday, South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), said it was concerned about the sentiments attributed to Chief Justice Mogoeng.

African National Congress (ANC) national spokesperson Pule Mabe said the former liberation movement was “deeply concerned” by the remarks.

Mabe said: “The esteemed Chief Justice (Mogoeng) entered the arena of political commentary, which may make him vulnerable should he have to adjudicate a human rights matter in the future. He also openly supported the actions of the State of Israel, actions condemned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on numerous occasions and contemptuous behaviour towards the human rights of the people of Palestine.

“It was rather unfortunate for the chief justice to state that, 'South African government policy was binding upon himself and that he was not seeking to reject it' but then clearly and openly opposing it 'as a citizen'. The ANC has respect for the independence of the judiciary. South Africa is a secular state and officials of the state, which include our esteemed judiciary, are bound by the Constitution to respect this.” 

Mabe said the ANC has consistently expressed courageously through its successive resolutions that the contemporary State of Israel is an apartheid state.