Legal battle over ‘soul’ of Zionist foundation

Dianna Yach, chairperson and director of local Jewish charity the Mauerberger Foundation Fund (MFF), has once again overseen a donation of R1 million to a South African organisation, yet categorised it as a donation to Israel, according to new documents in court. It’s believed to have been an attempt to conceal the MFF’s alleged underfunding of Israeli entities, which should receive half of its grants. 

This is after local businessman Steven Levy and global health expert Dr Derek Yach took Dianna Yach to the Western Cape High Court over her volatile management of their family foundation. Dianna Yach is Levy’s cousin and Dr Yach’s sister. All three are directors of the foundation. Court papers showed that Dianna Yach donated R1 million to Gift of the Givers, to be sent to Gaza. Now, it has emerged that this was not a once-off incident, but a pattern. 

In their replying affidavit, Levy and Dr Yach question why Dianna Yach categorised a R1 million donation to the Jewish Democratic Initiative (JDI), a South African non-profit organisation, as an allocation to Israel. 

The JDI, founded as a space for liberal Zionists in South Africa, has become increasingly anti-Israel. It frequently collaborates with antizionist hate group South African Jews for a Free Palestine, and has blamed rising antisemitism, including the Bondi Beach attack, on Israel’s actions. “The Jewish State, in its refusal to come to terms with another group living on the same land, has made the world less safe for Jews,” stated the group, in response to the Roedean School scandal. 

The affidavit shows that Dianna Yach once again categorised this donation as going to Israel, despite the JDI having South African tax and public benefit organisation status, and its physical address in Milnerton, Cape Town. 

Morris Mauerberger, grandfather of the Yachs and Levy, was a staunch Zionist. He set up the foundation and stipulated that 50% of donations must go to Israeli entities, 25% to the Jewish community in South Africa, and 25% to non-Jewish entities in South Africa. Nowhere did he say that donations must go to Gaza. 

Yet court papers showed that the MFF donated R1 million to Gift of the Givers, to be sent to Gaza, which Dianna Yach categorised as part of their allocation to Israel. This was after Gift of the Givers founder and antizionist Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said that the Gaza war would “end Israel”. 

Levy and Dr Yach allege that Dianna Yach is the cause of the MFF’s failure to adhere to its founding document. Its Israel allocations declined from 49% in 2020 to a mere 3% in 2024. In contrast, a single South African non-Jewish beneficiary, the University of Cape Town (UCT), received 21% of MFF grants in 2024. 

The case was heard in court on Monday, 26 October, before Judge Phillipa Susan Van Zyl. 

Representing Levy and Dr Yach, Advocate Johann Gautschi SC told the court how Levy had repeatedly objected to the foundation departing from its mandate, reducing funding to Israel while increasing funding to local entities like UCT. Dianna Yach sits on the UCT Council executive, its highest level of leadership. 

Gautschi demonstrated how Levy became increasingly desperate to stem this tide of non-compliance. He repeatedly urged the foundation to allocate the mandatory donation percentages to Israel, but he was consistently blocked, silenced, and dismissed by Dianna Yach and fellow directors Igshaan Higgins and Professor Brian Figaji. 

Levy and Dr Yach are now asking the court to suspend the three from the MFF board, and to declare them “delinquent directors”. This is a classification for leaders found guilty of gross abuse of position, wilful misconduct, or a total breach of fiduciary trust. 

After two other experienced directors resigned, Levy became a lone voice in trying to steer the foundation back towards compliance with his grandfather’s wishes and its memorandum of incorporation. Dr Yach also became increasingly concerned. But instead of getting back on track, Dianna Yach presented a four-year “transition” plan, devised by Figaji, that would perpetuate non-compliance while creating a veneer of remedial action. 

Dianna Yach’s legal team described the case as “purely a boardroom fight”. They argued that this was a disagreement over Israel’s response to the 7 October massacre and Dr Yach and Levy’s disapproval of UCT’s Gaza resolutions, in a possible attempt to dilute the serious governance concerns raised. 

On behalf of the JDI steering committee, Basil Dubb told the SA Jewish Report that the JDI has received significant funding from the MFF, “based on a shared commitment to social justice”. 

In their annual funding proposals to the MFF, “we have supplied detailed reports on our structure, our activities, and our finances, to ensure that the directors know who they are funding,” he says. 

It is unclear whether this was presented to Dianna Yach alone, because one of the issues raised in court was her persistent suppression of Levy’s attempts to secure information and documents relating to the foundation’s funding of beneficiaries, including the JDI. 

Three months after that allocation of R1 million, the JDI wrote an article defending and praising Dianna Yach. It defended her voting in support of UCT’s antizionist Gaza resolutions and her donation to Gift of the Givers. “She knows Sooliman personally, has invited him over for coffee on many occasions, and has had long discussions with him,” JDI wrote. “She is of the opinion that he is ‘a lovely man, not antisemitic at all’,” it said. 

Yet Sooliman has called himself “5000% antisemitic”, described Israel as a “terrorist state” and said that Zionists “run the world with fear and control the world with money”. At the same time, he accepted money from a foundation founded by a staunch Zionist, Mauerberger. 

Beyond the MFF, commentators have expressed concern about Dianna’s Yach’s conduct in other spheres, particularly at UCT. She is not only a central figure in the Mendelsohn review application regarding UCT’s Gaza resolutions, but she is cited in the August 2026 review application filed by UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela. She also oversaw the sudden closure of the Irma Stern Museum, as the chairperson of the museum committee. 

Covering these events in a YouTube video, local commentator Thee Sama Sambit said that Dianna Yach “apparently cannot walk past an institution without that institution immediately catching a court case”. Neither she nor the MFF has commented on Sambit’s video. 

Another observer, speaking on condition of anonymity, says that Dianna Yach is no longer guided by the stipulated wishes of her grandfather. Instead, “It seems that if Dianna likes you, you simply get a million rand”. 

The SA Jewish Report reached out to Yach for comment, but she didn’t respond. 

Judgment in the case was reserved.