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EFF leader alleges Cape Town ‘Zionist’ land conspiracy

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Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) member of the National Assembly, Mogamad Nazier Paulsen, has blamed the dearth of reasonably priced property in Cape Town on Jews.

He wrote on Facebook recently that people struggling to buy a home in the Mother City should “blame it on people who vote DA [Democratic Alliance] and give them the power to wheel and deal with our land over Shabbas”. Paulsen wrote this in response to a Facebook post about a Shabbat dinner celebrating Cape Town being voted “best city in the world” by TimeOut magazine.

He was referring to former ward councillor for the Atlantic Seaboard and current property consultant Jacques Weber’s post, in which he described a celebratory Shabbat dinner at the home of Cape property icon Denise Dogon.

The guests included City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, both of the DA. “The evening was one of thoughtful discussion, celebration, and pride in Cape Town’s continued success on the global stage,” wrote Weber.

Paulsen wrote about Dogon Properties, a Jewish-owned company, on his own Facebook page on 18 January, saying, “To make it in the property market, you need solid connections with powerful politicians. Powerful like the premier and the mayor. And you need to be a cold-hearted Zionist.

“If lucrative land is released on the Atlantic Seaboard or anywhere in Cape Town, it’s been released with a certain buyer in mind, discussed over dinners,” he wrote. He imagined a fictitious scenario in which property agents ask Cape leaders, “Given the Atlantic Seaboard has a very influential Jewish community, with half our agents of that faith, are your Muslim buyers Jewish by any chance?”

Paulsen stated that the Atlantic Seaboard, where many Jews live, is “a cesspool of racism and Islamophobia”. Then, writing on X on 20 January, he said an anti-Israel “carcade” protest through Sea Point the day before had “descended upon the occupied Atlantic Seaboard” in celebration of “the victory of the faithful over evil and falsehood”.

Commenting on his Facebook post about the Shabbat dinner, many South Africans agreed with Paulsen’s conspiracy theories. “The bogus Jews – Zionists – are streaming into the Western Cape in their hundreds every day, and have identified the Western Cape as their safe haven,” wrote one follower, Charles Nene.

“Selling off Cape Town piece by piece. European settlers flooding in just like in the West Bank and soon to be Gaza. Same modus operandi. Zionist mafia property developers being facilitated by the City of Cape Town to seize and gentrify land,” wrote Patric Tariq Mellet. “The DA and the city being joined at the hip to Zionist property developer mafias is corruption, no different to the Gupta scenario.”

“I recently visited Cape Town, and something felt incredibly ominous about the sheer opulence in some places. There’s an air of white and Zionist monopoly driving through Clifton and Camps Bay and the like,” wrote Tris Dampies.

Abduragmaan Mohamed, whose profile picture shows a Star of David dripping blood, wrote that Paulsen was describing “colonisation under the guise of democracy”. “Europeans out-voting the indigenous people, out-voting them from their land. End dual citizenship! Don’t allow another Palestine with Zionist dual citizenship! End corrupt Zionist DA!”

Daniel Bloch, the executive director of the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies, says his organisation is investigating Paulsen’s comments.

Conspiracy theories suggesting that the DA and Jews are colluding to “sell off”, “colonise”, and “occupy” the Western Cape often circulate on social media. For example, in early 2024, an article published by the South African Muslim Network, warning Western Cape residents to “Wake up before you find a little Israel near you!” was widely shared. It stated that “The Zionist new world order has come to the Western Cape, and people must rise up and stop it.”

Local antisemitism expert Professor Milton Shain says both Paulsen’s post and the comments on it are “a replay of European discourse in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – with one difference. The commentators – to further a political agenda – use the word ‘Zionists’ instead of ‘Jews’. But the meaning is obvious. Allusions to the Israeli ‘occupation’ ensures this. At times, the veil is dropped, exposing an ugly underbelly informed by simple hate.

“The mayor and premier should nip this in the bud,” says Shain. “Language of this kind never has a good ending. Especially disturbing are the comments by Paulsen. Is this acceptable for a parliamentarian?”

Paulsen wrote that Weber had deleted the post about the Shabbat dinner, but Weber told the SA Jewish Report that he didn’t delete it, he simply blocked Paulsen on Facebook as he wouldn’t “engage with individuals who clearly have antisemitic tendencies”.

Weber says Paulsen’s comments about the increase in property prices “couldn’t be more incorrect, but that’s the manner in which he operates. Cape Town property prices are increasing due to the demand to own property in a city that is one of the only major functioning municipalities in South Africa. This says a lot about other provinces, which are failing hands-down under the management of other political parties.”

He notes that Paulsen’s agenda is always “to drive a wedge [between people] based on religion and cultural beliefs, but history has shown that the majority of Cape Town citizens don’t tolerate this. If he really understood how government worked, he would also know that eligibility to vote is set out in the Constitution, and regardless of who runs Home Affairs, such policy changes would need the support of the full Cabinet to be tabled before a parliamentary setting.”

Member of the National Assembly for the DA, Michael Bagraim, says, “In this blatantly antisemitic and discriminatory post, Paulsen lets down his veneer of disguise by mentioning Jews. People of his type normally hide behind the word ‘Zionist’. They try desperately to pretend that some of their best friends are Jews.”

He notes that Paulsen earns more than R1 million per year, with other perks. “He pretends to be exceptionally poor and part of the proletariat,” says Bagraim. “But in one of his replies to followers, he asks the individual to ‘organise me a lekker property on the Atlantic Seaboard to occupy. It must at least have a lap pool for exercising’.”

“The reality is that Paulsen has nothing to offer other than to attack the other,” says Bagraim. “His own political party, the EFF, is collapsing around him. He talks about the Atlantic Seaboard being a cesspool of racism, which is strange, because that’s exactly what he’s guilty of. The negativity found in his discourse is unfortunately indicative of the individual.”

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Joel Friedman

    January 23, 2025 at 3:43 pm

    It appears that antisemitism is alive and well and living all over South Africa, any insults that stem from the EFF are not to be taken to heart as they are a group of unintelligent idiots that are still learning to read and write , stealing money from a banking institution is more up their alley , as for the satanic nazi Muslims they just sweat with jealousy and continue to hate our success in all spheres in this world .

  2. Devora

    January 24, 2025 at 11:37 am

    This group, the EFF, are a a group of has beens trying to get into power and they will say and cater to anyone that they can to garner votes. They are a bunch of ignorant hooligans.
    They like their other “relatives” like the useless ANC and the idiots in the MK, they dont even care about South Africa at all they are just desperate to get to the money, corruption and theft, and further decline what was once an amazing country.
    As Paton said “cry our beloved country”

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