The University of Pretoria has condemned anti-Semitism after graffiti featuring swastikas and calling to “gas all Jews” was found on notice boards in its Humanities Building, drawing praise from South Africa’s leading Jewish body for its swift removal of the offensive symbols.
Contacted by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the university responded by saying that it "condemns any form of discrimination and hate speech and will not hesitate to act against anyone found guilty of this type of behaviour. When the University became aware of a notice board that was vandalised with anti-Semitic graffiti on its Hatfield campus, we immediately removed it and notified campus security to investigate the incident.”
The SAJBD commended the university "for their swift removal of the offensive boards as soon as SAUJS [South African Union of Jewish Students] reported the graffiti to the authorities.”
Last week the Jewish body spoke out after a South African fringe politician made a mockery of the Holocaust and its victims on social media.
"For those claiming the legacy of the holocaust is ONLY negative think about the lampshades and Jewish soap,” tweeted Andile Mngxitama, the head of the Black First Land First (BLF) party, a Pan-Africanism with no seats in the country’s National Assembly.
The Board responding with a statement saying that it was considering its options in terms of what action to “take against” Mngxitama, whose tweet the Jewish representative body described as "crassly offensive, demeaning and hurtful.”
This was not the first time that members of the South African Jewish community have taken local politicians to task over statements or positions perceived to be either anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist. During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein demanded that the ANC retract an official party statement comparing Israel with Nazi Germany and accused a senior party official of having “betrayed the South African dream of peaceful and dignified dialogue.”
He was responding to ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte’s statement condemning Israel’s strikes against Hamas targets as “barbaric attacks on the defenseless Palestinian people of Gaza.” Duarte also accused Israel of having turned the “occupied territories of Palestine into permanent death camps” and called for South African citizens to boycott the Jewish state.
