Hamas Supporters Gather in South Africa, Ruling Party Dares U.S. To ‘Apply Sanctions’

Pro-Hamas organizations gathered in Cape Town on September 27 to hold a march and rally. Prominent South African imam Ebrahim Gabriels addressed the thousands of demonstrators, calling President Donald Trump a terrorist and a hypocrite and shouting, “Viva Hamas, viva.”

The demonstration also included a defiant address from a top-ranking official of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party who dared the United States to impose sanctions on ANC officials for undermining U.S. interests. By sending an official delegation to a march replete with attacks on the United States, support for terrorism, and calls to destroy Israel, the ANC risks further harming relations with the United States.

The Organizers’ Hamas Ties

Leading the protest were the Al-Quds Foundation of South Africa (AQFSA) and the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC). AQFSA and MJC are intertwined and frequently cohost events, including a 2015 welcome rally for Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

MJC President Riad Fataar led chants of “Death, death to the IDF.” Fataar made headlines last October by declaring, “We are all Hamas.” Shouts of support for Hamas peppered the procession, and people wore items like shirts bearing the logo of Youth for Al-Quds, the youth branch of AQFSA, and the slogan “I am Hamas.”

Gabriels, who is president of AQFSA, emceed the rally. Previously an MJC president, Gabriels was listed in the early 2000s as a board member for the Union of Good, a charity umbrella group the U.S. Treasury Department designated for sanctions in 2008 for funding Hamas. Treasury sanctioned AQFSA’s parent organization, Al-Quds International Foundation, in 2012, but its South African branch remains unsanctioned. Gabriels has frequently met with Hamas officials and attended the funeral of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar in August 2024.

ANC Participates in the Rally

The ANC sent a delegation to the march headed by First Deputy Secretary-General Nomvula Mokonyane, who called for boycotting “apartheid” Israel. Lashing out at a bill in Congress calling for sanctions on ANC and South African officials, Mokonyane said, “Even when our names are in the bills of the United States of America, they will apply sanctions on us … Let them apply sanctions on us. We are not peacetime heroes. We are revolutionaries. … Let those sanctions come.” In August, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula challenged Trump to “bring on” sanctions against the party leadership, saying it will not beg “imperialists” not to subvert the country’s democracy.

Mokonyane’s revolutionary activity allegedly includes accepting large bribes from a company seeking political favors. A massive investigation into state capture, known as the Zondo Commission, recommended prosecuting Mokonyane in 2022 for accepting gifts from a large government contractor.

Demonstrating her country’s warm ties with U.S. enemies, Mokonyane hosted the Iranian ambassador to South Africa at the ANC’s headquarters on March 4. She called Iran a “fraternal” country that she is “proud to associate with” and declared, “We can’t hide our friends when they actually identified with us, in the most difficult times of our history.”

ANC Ties to Hamas Remain a Concern

The ANC has maintained ties with Hamas, usually taking care to do so as party members and not as government officials. The ANC hosted Hamas’s Meshaal during his 2015 South Africa trip. During a 2018 Hamas visit to South Africa, the ANC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iran-backed terrorist group. Mbalula met with Hamas representatives in Johannesburg just two months after the Iran-backed terrorist group carried out its October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel. And a Hamas delegation visited South Africa again in May 2024 and allegedly met with then foreign minister Naledi Pandor.

U.S.-South Africa relations continue to flail, with the United States rejecting successive South African emissaries and South Africa’s lawfare against Israel irritating America. If Pretoria seeks to repair relations with Washington, the ANC’s anti-American posturing and open association with Hamas and Hamas supporters should cease. Otherwise, Congress should consider advancing the sanctions that ANC officials are clamoring for.

David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from the author and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.