
South Africa’s Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who has recently shared one of his notable foreign policy perspectives, says his country would not abandon the Palestinian cause and ignore the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appease the US.
Mashatile, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s deputy in the country’s governing African National Congress (ANC), insists that the US understands that while Pretoria is one of Washington’s biggest trading partners, the two will not agree on everything.
In an exclusive interview on Russia’s 24-hour international news channel RT (Russia Today) on Wednesday (January 15), South Africa’s second in command touched on several topics, including the Gaza war between Israel and Palestine.
He said his country would not abandon the Palestinian cause and its International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Israel simply because the US is on the other side of the gulf.
“The US is one of our biggest trading partner[s], but it doesn’t mean that we will agree with them on everything and they know that. So, on the issue of Israel-Palestine, we don’t agree with them; we think there is [a] genocide that must be stopped to the extent that they come to the party on that, we would be happy. But they are not going to tell us to stop supporting Palestine, but we would work with them,” Mashatile said.

He added that oppressed people in the world must be supported, and South Africa would never turn a blind eye to appease the US.
Mashatile’s interview came less than a week before US President-Elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in on January 20 and amid tensions between the two countries over South Africa’s pursuit of Israel.
Trump’s Republican Party has threatened to remove South Africa from its African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows the country to export goods to the US under favourable conditions.
Mashatile warned Netanyahu, wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes in Gaza, not to visit South Africa as the country would arrest him.
“When the ICC says you have transgressed, they should be allowed to implement that decision. We, as South Africa, will not stand in the way when the ICC has to implement its decision. So, we do hope that Israel will comply, but we know it’s difficult; nobody wants to easily give themselves to be arrested.
“But it’s a decision of those who are part of these conventions, and we think that those decisions must be respected. “Indeed, he (Netanyahu), he better not come here because there is no way we can protect him. We are part of the convention, and we respect it because if we don’t, we are going to undermine the rules-based order that governs our relations in the world,” Mashatile warned.

Netanyahu is allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians since October 7, when Hamas killed 1,300 Israelis.
The arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were issued on 21 November 2024.
The US and some of its Western allies have threatened sanctions against the ICC and its prosecutors in a bid to push back against the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
On Thursday (January 16), the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favour of a bill sanctioning the ICC in retaliation for its arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.

US MPs in the lower chamber of Congress passed the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act” by 243 to 140 votes, with five Democrats joining 198 Republicans who supported the bill.
Under the bill, any foreigner who assists the ICC in its quest to probe, detain, or prosecute a US citizen or citizen of an allied country that does not recognise the court’s authority would be sanctioned.
The bill has been referred to the Senate, where Trump’s Republican Party has the majority.