OPINION: It’s selfish to call on Miss SA to put her dreams on hold

”Black women are tired of fighting other people’s battles and getting nothing in return.”

This was the profound comment made by a radio caller recently.

The host and callers were debating the appropriateness of Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane’s participation in the Miss Universe pageant in Israel later this year.

A few weeks earlier, another woman of colour, former Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan, lent her voice in defence of Mswane when she censured Mandla Mandela for his call for Mswane to put her dreams on hold so she could support his personal vendetta against Israel.

As Idan said: “How dare you?” Since then, others have joined Mandela is his call, such as Africa4Palestine, the political party Al Jama-ah, and, perhaps most distressingly, the ANC.

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The ANC, through the department of sports, arts and culture, has shamelessly used the state as a tool to favour its friends in the Palestinian authority, muzzling the voices of South Africans who aspire to have good relations with Israel and her people.

Israel has been made the scapegoat that is to bear the guilt of all that is wrong in the life of Palestinians. No responsibility is to be borne by Fatah and Hamas, according to Mandela, Africa4Palestine, Al Jama-ah, and the ANC.

This despite Fatah and Hamas leading brutal regimes that oppress Palestinians in their respective territories of the West Bank and Gaza.

Mandela’s stance is not surprising, given that he himself has been accused by the subjects of his Mvezo chieftaincy of being a tyrannical overlord.

As for Africa4Palestine, this organisation is not interested in the truth, nor honest debate.

Indeed, they intimidate their opponents into submission.

Fear is their weapon.

So, we should not be surprised that they identify with the Palestinian Authority, which even Ilan Pappé, Israel’s most virulent critic in academia, characterises as selfish, inept and a real hindrance not only to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also to Palestinians being agents in the fashioning of their own futures.

If the leaders of the ANC and Al Jama-ah have any integrity, they will divorce themselves from this dubious company.

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Given the ridiculous hypocrisy of Mandela, Africa4Palestine, and all others who would seek to justify their hatred of Israel, South Africans should support Mswane as she travels to Israel to represent South Africa in the Miss Universe pageant.

Should these organisations dare to demand withdrawing the support of a black women who is simply trying to make her dreams a reality, they must allow a real debate to happen.

They must stop using intimidation and the power of the state to advance a potentially antiSemitic agenda, and they must allow all South Africans, especially black women, to be the masters of their own destinies.

• Written by Ncamisile Ngubane-Sibiya, an independent historian.