Kenneth Meshoe defends ACDP's controversial Israel trip, says party won't join GNU

Eyewitness News

23-04-2025

Tshidi Madia 23 April 2025 | 9:00
Rev Kenneth Meshoe, founder of the African Christian Democratic Party.
The ACDP, which is only represented by 3 members of parliament in the national assembly and tends to fly below the radar, has been at the heart of public discourse in recent weeks following a controversial, privately funded, multi-party trip to Israel, undertaken by some of its members alongside a few other MPs from the DA and PA last month.The trip, titled a 'fact-finding mission,' has come under much scrutiny, following its findings which claim there is no evidence of apartheid in Israel, it further described the country as a vibrant, progressive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic society. The difficulty with this view, for many, is it's a sponsored one-sided view of what's happening in the middle east and is this is at odds, with what South Africa's government believes.Israel has been involved in a retaliatory onslaught against Palestine following the October 2023 attacks, however this is part of a longer battle by the Palestinians to self-determine, this as they have continuously argued that they are being pushed off their land, with those living in Gaza comparing it to being in an open prison.
ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe joined Politricking with Tshidi Madia, an EWN politics podcast, defending his own party members' participation in the trip. He also spoke on the future of his organisation, while sharing his views on South Africa's own tensions with the U.S and why the ACDP could never join the government of national unity coalition.'When you have a constitution such as we have in South Africa, that promotes freedom of conscience, freedom of movement, freedom of association, how can I say no to a member of the ACDP who says my faith was started in Jerusalem, my faith is embedded in the in the Middle East…I have said to ACDP members, anybody who wants to go, go,' said Meshoe.He said it was not his responsibility to vet who his party members were traveling with, let alone the meetings they participated in whilst in Israel, insisting that his MPs know his organisation's values and would not act out of line with its positions.The Christian party is a vocal supporter of Israel and has publicly refused to back the country's successful bid to have attacks on Gaza declared genocidal in the international court of justice.This it argued was because it believed South Africa could have played a more constructive role in influencing Hamas to surrender and release hostages kidnapped in the October 7th attack.It's argued that South Africa has lost its right to play the role of an honest peace-broker.Meshoe, said theirs wasn't a stance aligned to politicians and went on to discuss his own experiences of Israel, which also, did not include a detour to the west bank, to see firsthand if claims of conflict were real or not. He also insisted the Middle East experience is nothing like apartheid, which his own country has experienced.'In South Africa, you go to the beach, there were those benches; whites only, [in Israel], you go to the beach, you see people of different colours swimming together. I nearly got a heart attack when I saw that… when I went to a hospital, a children's Hospital… to see Muslim mothers with their babies and to see Arab doctors there,' he observed.The Reverend did however bemoan the countless reported fatalities in Gaza.This as he continued to defend Israel, raising concerns over what he said were 'attempts by politicians in the country to remove Israel from the face of the earth.''If you have people talking about eradicating a nation, I would never agree with that,' he added.Meshoe also shared his thoughts on President Cyril Ramaphosa's appointment of Mcebisi Jonas as the special envoy to the U.S, this as the country tries to thaw an increasingly frosty relationship with the western superpower. He said South Africa should have acted much faster.'They are late, what they are now wanting to do with Jonas should have been done from the very beginning, its like they were caught napping,' he complained.He said a delegation should have been sent immediately after U.S President Donald Trump started publicly echoing some of the disinformation regarding the country's policies on land expropriation and claims of attacks targeted at white people.He said this was a far better approach than ones which might be seen as antagonistic to the U.S.'When we fight fire with fire, it doesn't produce the desired results, and unfortunately at the beginning, if you listened to the language that was being used by our people, it was terrible. It was as if they were fighting, now they are cooling down because they realise you cannot win this fight,' said Meshoe.On a local front, he said due to his party's policies, it realised it could not join the government of national unity.The ACDP is anti-abortion rights and takes issue with the recognition of the rights of the LGBTQI+ community, both of which are covered and protected by this country's constitution.'We couldn't not avoid policy clashes and obviously when we see what happens between the DA and ANC, we realise that the same would be happening, even on a smaller scale [with us,] said Meshoe.This as he defended his party's policies, whilst arguing that partnering with parties in the GNU would have had a negative impact on the performance of ACDP members.The Reverend went on to describe the two largest parties in the national coalition as a disappointment.'People have double-tongues,' he noted.Meshoe said the two major parties all say they care about citizens but their actions, more so during the ongoing proposed budget statement have let the country down.'They have said one thing and did the opposite of what they've said,' he said.On his part, Meshoe said his party would have voted in favour of the fiscal framework had it not been for the proposed VAT increase, which kicks in next week.Meshoe, interestingly enough, continued to believe the ACDP's time to shine is yet to come, this despite being on the ballot for all of the country's general elections and failing to capture the electorate's imagination, he believes the fall of the ANC, might be to his party's benefit.
'Everything has its own time, there's time to smile, a time to frown… watch what's going to happen in the next few years,' he concluded.