Today, shocking images were posted by former Johannesburg mayor and Al Jama-ah city councillor Thapelo Amad showing him posing with an assault rifle while declaring his unequivocal support for the Hamas terror organisation. This follows Amad’s having also incited violent attacks against anyone who supported Israel in a previous post reading, “Death to the Zionist Israeli and its supporters for killing innocent civilians, i.e., women and children”.
Amad’s latest inflammatory posts come less than 24 hours after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared that there “is no place in South Africa for violence or threats of violence against those who hold contrary views” and further urged South Africans not to allow the Israel-Hamas conflict to turn them against one another.
Amad’s posts are exacerbating an already dangerous situation in which attacks on the Jewish community, a number of them violent, had increased almost ten-fold since the outbreak of the current conflict in the Middle East.
This kind of incitement is unacceptable for any South African, but it is all the more deplorable from a political leader, particularly one who up until recently was at the helm of a key city in our country. We call on President Ramaphosa to address this very serious issue and for Cllr Amad to be strongly censured for his reprehensible conduct.
