Iran Massacre

Statement by Ryan Smith MP – DA Spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation:

The ANC’s hypocrisy on international relations was again on full display this week, when a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) vote was held calling for a special session to address the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The ANC’s failure to support this appeal confirms the party’s ongoing explicit support for the brutal regime in Iran, and its subsequent complicity in the massacre of thousands of anti-government protesters.

This act of rank moral hypocrisy is yet another example of the ANC’s total subversion of the principles enshrined in the South African constitution, and a violation of the Government of National Unity’s (GNU) statement of intent, to serve its party-political interests in the global arena.

These actions continue to severely tarnish our country’s international reputation in the process.

Simply put, the ANC will only engage in diplomatic morality when it suits their pocket or their electoral prospects.

Even more conspicuous in his absence is Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Ronald Lamola, who has been missing in action when faced with one of the most brutal human rights atrocities in recent history by a BRICS+ member.

The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) demand for South Africa to report Iran to the UNHRC was met with a pitiful statement from the presidency calling for ‘restraint and dialogue’.

The time for restraint has long gone when the blood of over 5000 civilians now stains the hands of the theocratic Iranian regime.

A report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) earlier this week depicts the blurred photos of the bloodied, swollen, and bruised faces of at least 326 victims of the Iranian civilian massacre leaked to journalists from the south Tehran mortuary.

Among the victims are women and young adolescents.

These are the people to whom the ANC has chosen to turn a blind eye when confronted with the moral test they once presented themselves to the international community during the apartheid era.

South Africa’s silence on Iran is not just an indictment on our country as a supposed international torchbearer for human rights, but on the ANC leadership that has traded ethics and morality for political power.

The ANC has no legitimacy referring to itself as a liberation movement if it remains complicit in the atrocities committed by the Iranian government against its own people.

The DA condemns DIRCO’s failure to adhere to the GNU statement of intent and the ongoing selective approach to foreign policy which has put on full display the ANC’s warped and outdated world view.

At a time of global uncertainty, the ANC’s pursuit of its party interests using foreign policy, is risking South Africa’s standing on the global stage, and it is the people of South Africa who will ultimately pay the price.