The South African Parliament has refused to meet with an Israeli delegation that was planning to visit members of the country’s assembly in Cape Town.

The planned visit by the Israeli delegation was rejected by the late Nelson Mandela’s ruling party the ANC which has the majority in Parliament with 249 seats out of a 400-seat assembly.

Commenting on ANC’s rejection, Mandla Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, said: “We applaud Parliament’s decision to reject the invitation for the Israeli parliamentary delegation to visit. In so doing parliament has stayed true to Madiba’s [Mandela’s clan name] commitment to stand by the Palestinian cause”.

Mandla, who is himself a member of Parliament and holds the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Whip, also expressed “gratitude and appreciation to the ANC parliamentary caucus for its resolute and firm stand to reject the Israeli invite” before  calling on them to “pressurise [our] ANC led government to deny [the Israeli delegation] access to [our] country.”

The fall of the no confidence motion

In another context, a no-confidence motion for South African President Jacob Zuma failed in parliament on Tuesday as ruling African National Congress (NPA) deputies stood in the ranks of their leader despite growing divisions and fierce criticism of his rule.

Balika Mbeti, the speaker of parliament, announced the fall of the motion of no-confidence, after winning the support of 177 votes and opposed 198 deputies, noting that the memorandum needed to support the votes of 201 out of 400 deputies.