Mandela Foundation targets Christian Zionists

The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) has made it clear that it sees Christian Zionism as a “problem”, and it is running a competition for individuals and institutions to come up with “creative, courageous and effective initiatives” geared towards “challenging” it.

The NMF said it would pay up to R150 000 towards initiatives, in what it calls the Solidarity in Action Awards. The closing date for the competition, which suggested possibilities such “developing educational resources” or “hiring human resources or consultants to drive this work”, was 30 June 2025.

History shows that the initiative stands in opposition to Nelson Mandela’s values. On Easter 1994, just before South Africa’s first democratic election, Mandela visited the Zionist Christian Church. There, he said that South Africa must be “a common home for all its people in their diversity”.

Hate-speech expert, Advocate Mark Oppenheimer, warns that the NMF’s initiative could have a chilling effect on Zionism in South Africa. And NMF co-ordinator of dialogue and advocacy, Nomahlozi Ramohloki made clear the organisation’s views on Jewish Zionists upfront, when she told the SA Jewish Report, “The foundation recognises Jewish Zionism as a significant barrier to achieving a just, peaceful, and lasting solution for the Palestinian people.”

However, she went on, “It is important to emphasise that this initiative doesn’t persecute or target any particular religion.”

Dr Naledi Pandor was appointed chairperson of the NMF in September 2024, at the end of her term in government. Prior to this, she was South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, where she relentlessly targeted Israel. She led South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and aligned with authoritarian regimes on the global stage.

Says Ramohloki, “The foundation’s focus on Christian Zionism is grounded in the role it played in enabling the Zionist project.” She believes that “Zionism would have not succeeded without the theological framework provided by Christian Zionism. This was demonstrated in the ways Christian beliefs influenced promoters of the Balfour Declaration, in which the United Kingdom expressed its support for the establishment of a Jewish national home.”

When announcing the awards at the beginning of June, the NMF said that in a series of dialogues, “the topic of Christian Zionism has repeatedly emerged as an important issue that needs to be addressed”. It said these awards would “advance Palestinian justice and liberation”.

According to the NMF, Christian Zionism “justified domination and discrimination in South Africa”, and therefore is doing the same in the Middle East. The NMF says Christians are “misusing,” “misinterpreting”, and “weaponising” their own scriptures.

In May 2024, the NMF hosted an event titled “Understanding Christian Zionism”, without inviting any Christian Zionists. Only anti-Zionist speakers were invited. A source who was there told Israeli media that a pamphlet issued by Hamas denying its 7 October atrocities against civilians and justifying the massacre was handed out at the entrance by anti-Israel organisation the Media Review Network.

On 30 October 2023, when Israel had barely started fighting back against Hamas, the NMF called for a ceasefire. Then, on 31 October, it published a piece that condemned the killing of innocent Israeli civilians, but said the attacks must be seen in “context”, blaming Israel. The article called for the release of Israeli hostages, but also erroneously claimed Israel was holding “hostages”.

In February 2024, the NMF hosted a “Shabbat for Palestine”, and in November 2024, it took part in an event that compared Israel to South Africa under apartheid, and encouraged boycotts, divestment, and sanctions of the country. In January 2025, NMF Chief Executive Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi said, “We reiterate our support for the [ICJ] case against Israel.”

Oppenheimer says the NMF continues to betray Mandela’s legacy, something it has been doing for a long time. For example, in 2020, following the killing of George Floyd in the United States, “the foundation endorsed divisive rhetoric and encouraged targeted acts of violence. While these calls were initially ignored, South Africa soon experienced the July 2021 riots.”

Oppenheimer says the NMF has adopted an increasingly hostile stance towards Israel. Though the foundation is entitled to take political positions, “many of its supporters, who believed they were contributing to an institution rooted in the values of dignity and equality, may now come to realise that the organisation has strayed from its founding principles. The foundation’s moral authority is in serious question, and it no longer deserves the public trust or donor support it once enjoyed.”

Reverend John Atkinson, the director of an organisation that increases awareness of the Jewish roots of Christianity and combats antisemitism, says, “If the NMF is truly concerned about Palestinians and not just aiming for the eradication of the Jewish state, I suggest that it challenge the death-cult theology of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“As this initiative has been promoted by Pandor, who is a Christian apostate who converted to Islam, this glaring omission shouldn’t be surprising,” Atkinson says. “Christian Zionism is biblical, and backed by many international biblical scholars. Is this the best use of funds when South Africa’s challenges are so great?”

African Christian Democratic Party member of Parliament, Steve Swart, agrees, saying, “Our nation’s challenges require more urgent attention than challenging Christian Zionism. South Africans enjoy freedom of religion, belief, and opinion, and we won’t be deterred from standing with Israel and the Jewish people and praying for and seeking peace in the Middle East.”

Content creator Sama Sambit, who has 54 600 subscribers on his YouTube channel, decided to highlight the issue in a video that has already received 11 000 views. As a young Catholic, he says Mandela’s name is in opposition to “paying people to ‘creatively’ trash a faith that millions of South Africans live by every day.”

The NMF, he says, is “playing identity politics like it’s a sport. This isn’t about taking sides in the Middle East. It’s about refusing to let anyone pit us against our own beliefs. You don’t fix injustice by silencing Christians. You don’t achieve peace by hosting contests to see who can do the best job in dismantling someone’s faith-based worldview. That’s not activism, that’s intellectual vandalism.”

South African Jewish Board of Deputies analyst Adam Charnas says the NMF initiative is “clearly a new method of demonising Israel. Anti-Israel groups have tried to silence the Jewish Zionist community, and now we witness an attempt to intimidate Christian Zionists. This is the antithesis of the legacy of Nelson Mandela.”

Bafana Modise, the spokesperson for Christian Zionist organisation the South African Friends of Israel, says, “As an organisation, as South Africans, we are heartbroken to see the legacy of Nelson Mandela being hijacked. Mandela was a Zionist. He reaffirmed this when he said, ‘We insist on the right of Israel to exist.’

“This attempt to separate Christians from Israel undermines religious freedom and freedom of association. Incentivising people to attack Christians must raise the alarm of the Christian community at large.

“We will never be silenced,” Modise says. “We will continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We will continue to advocate for a two-state solution, and we will continue to stand for the people of Israel to live within secure borders, as Nelson Mandela said.”

“This is a deliberate attempt to undermine religious freedom and demonise millions of South African Christians,” says South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) spokesperson Rolene Marks. Under Pandor’s leadership, the NMF has “tilted sharply toward divisive rhetoric,” she says.

The SAZF calls on Christian Zionists to “defend their right to believe, to worship, and to support Israel without fear”, saying “this a moment that demands courage, clarity and unity”.

Furthermore, “The SAZF stands unequivocally with the Christian community, with Israel, and with the values of faith and truth. We will confront this campaign of intolerance, and we expose every effort to turn Mandela’s name into a weapon.”