On 18th January, David Saks reported on the Mail&Guardian blog that at a solidarity rally for Palestine organised by Cosatu in Lenasia the previous week, "Deputy Foreign Minister Fatima Hajaig informed a deliriously cheering crowd that America, as well as other Western countries, was in the grip of Jewish money power". (See here). Saks described this as the "first instance of public Jew-baiting by a member of government in over half a century" (that is, since the first decade of government by the National Party, with its residual sympathies for the racist totalitarian regime of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and its genocidal conquest of most of Europe).
Saks quoted Ms Hajaig as stating: "They [ie, the Jews] in fact control [America]. No matter which government comes in to power, whether Republican or Democratic, whether Barack Obama or George Bush. The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money and if Jewish money controls their country then you cannot expect anything else."
Saks reported that this remark by Ms Hajaig "was greeted with a particularly enthusiastic roar of appreciation by the audience". He noted that various other speakers at the rally also "made threatening statements against the local Jewish community".
In the following week, Politicsweb reported a statement by five anti-racist activists in South Africa, who wrote that they had sent a fax to Ms Hajaig on 21st January asking her to deny by 26th January having made the anti-Semitic remark attributed to her, but had received no reply. They had, however "received confirmation of receipt of our fax". (See here).
One must conclude that the Deputy Foreign Minister's remark was accurately reported. It is identical in spirit with the Charter of the Palestinian Islamist organisation, Hamas, adopted in 1987, which states that Jews have accumulated "huge and influential wealth", which it states Jews use to implement their "dream". According to Hamas, this wealth supposedly permitted Jews to foment both the French (1789) and the Russian (1917) revolutions so as to "fulfil their interests and pick up the fruit", as well as start both world wars and "promote clandestine organisations which are spreading around the world to destroy societies and promote Zionist interests", among which Hamas lists the Freemasons, Rotary clubs and Lions clubs.
The programme of Hamas, with which the African National Congress now appears to have aligned itself at governmental level, is indeed a racist and genocidal programme. This is evidenced by Article Seven in the Charter of Hamas, which incorporates a direct incitement to the murder of Jews from a well-known Hadith (or reputed saying of the prophet, Mohammed). Article Seven of the Hamas Charter states, "The Prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: 'The [end of days] will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: 'Oh, Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!''"