The burden of apartheid: why SA is obligated to impose a coal embargo against Israel

OUR country, South Africa, is among the largest global coal producers and one of the recipients of our coal is Israel. Yes, the same Israel currently perpetrating genocide against the Palestinians.

If that’s not enough of an indictment, it’s the same Israel which is administering an apartheid-style system that oppresses the Palestinians. The same Israel that South Africa charged with genocide at the International Court of Justice.

How is this possible? The country that defeated the original apartheid system now supplies an existing apartheid state with essential mineral resources? This is a travesty. A travesty of history, and a travesty of morality. As so often stated, context is essential.

At the centre of it all is Glencore, the Anglo-Swiss mining giant. A mining company with a particularly dark reputation, accused of being at the centre of multiple corruption and human rights abuses in South America and Africa, including the volatile Congo region.

In May 2022, Glencore International entered into a plea agreement with the United States government, pleading guilty to contravening the United States’ Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The alleged abuses centred around Glencore, particularly those directed at the indigenous communities located close to Glencore mining operations, has birthed an international "Resist Glencore" movement.

In South Africa, Glencore mines coal (primarily in Mpumalanga Province). This coal is then transported to Richards Bay Coal Terminal in KwaZulu-Natal, loaded onto ships and delivered to various Israeli ports. Since October 2023, at least 16 coal shipments have been delivered from Richards Bay to Israeli ports. Once the coal reaches Israel, it is used in Israeli power stations to produce energy. This is the coal supply chain leading from South Africa to Israel.

Colombia, South Africa and Russia are the biggest exporters of coal to Israel. Colombia imposed a coal embargo against Israel in terms of their obligations as a "Hague Group" member, the international coalition of states opposed to Israel’s genocidal actions against the Palestinians. These states have committed themselves to preventing the transportation and distribution of any materials which might be used by the Israelis to continue with their genocide campaign.

South Africa is a member of The Hague Group. A founding member, in fact. However, the Boycott Divestment Sanction Coalition has found that by May 2025, South African coal made up at least 39% of Israel’s total coal imports. For South Africa, coal exports to Israel is a measly, tiny fraction of our total coal exports. But for the Israelis, South African coal is critical for their energy supply.

Israel uses our coal to provide energy to illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land. Our coal provides energy to support Israel’s war industry, allowing the continued manufacture of the weapons being used to massacre Palestinians. Our coal allows Israel to power a genocide and an apartheid state.

Apartheid and genocide. Two crimes that have been defined as "crimes against humanity". We can’t let South African coal power Israel’s crimes against humanity. As South Africans are we able to look at ourselves in the mirror with any sense of pride, knowing that our mineral resources are supporting an apartheid state?

We are the world’s leading experts on apartheid, and we know about the collective trauma we carry as a nation. As individuals, and as a nation, can we actually enjoy any sense of national pride knowing that we, the original victims of apartheid, are literally empowering an existing apartheid state? It is not enough that our government instituted genocide charges at the ICJ and helped found The Hague Group.

That’s what our government has done and, morally, it was the right thing to do. But as South African citizens, we need to do more. We need to be thinking of this as a question of pure humanity, and a national responsibility. Our nation is burdened with a traumatic history, and we need to remember that our history is the present lived experience of the entire Palestinian people.

South Africans need to be out in numbers, visibly showing that they support the Palestinians. This is not about elections and this is not about voting for, or supporting, any political party. This is showing that the citizens of South Africa support our government on this particular issue.

Thursday, August 21, 2025, saw three co-ordinated protest actions at Department of Trade, Industry and Competition offices in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. Memorandums were presented demanding the institution of a coal embargo. These protests represent a remarkable cross section of South African society that has endorsed the embargo campaign. Palestinian and environmental activists, housing action organisations, creatives, civic groups. Just people united by a shared sense of humanity.

The decision to impose a coal embargo against Israel will be highly unpopular among the so-called "international community" that has allowed Israel to continue with its genocide, and supplied the weapons to perpetrate the genocide. If our government imposes a coal embargo against Israel, it can only be done with the full support of the South African citizenry. This is what will allow our government to resist any pressure, particularly from the United States government.

Critics will inevitably say "job losses" and "the economy…", but you know what? This campaign is endorsed by South Africa’s largest trade union federation, Cosatu.

Cosatu represents the working-class, the people employed along the entire coal supply chain. The people that could be hardest hit by a coal embargo, especially in a country with a high unemployment rate like ours. But they have endorsed this campaign. Why? Because the issues are genocide and apartheid, and those are crimes against humanity.

Speaking of crimes against humanity. A European mining company exporting African coal to help power illegal settlements and genocide on stolen land in the Middle East? Sounds a bit, dare I say it …. Colonial?

Yesh Govender writes in his capacity as an active member of the Durban-based South Africa Palestine Movement (SAPM).

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.  

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