Fransman rejects mediation over SAJBD complaint
A mediation meeting between Deputy Minister of International Relations Marius Fransman and the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) failed to take place when the Deputy Minister informed the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) that he would not be attending after all. The meeting, the date of which had been mutually agreed upon a month before, was scheduled to take place under the auspices of the SAHRC on Friday, but when the SAJBD representatives arrived, they were informed not only that Fransman would not be attending but that he had no interest in participating in any future mediation process.
Earlier this year, the SAJBD lodged a formal complaint with the SAHRC against Deputy Minister Fransman on account of several demeaning and inflammatory remarks he had made about the Jewish community and its leadership.
Specifically, the SAJBD found it completely unacceptable that Mr Fransman had accused it of being ‘un-South African', unpatriotic and of driving an interest outside of the national interest on behalf of a foreign country. These insulting remarks were made in response to the Board's objecting to the fact that on 26 February, Fransman had alleged on a Muslim radio station that Jewish businessman were unfairly benefitting at the expense of Muslims in the Western Cape.
In the first instance, Deputy Minister Fransman made public remarks likely to stir up ill feeling and mistrust between the Jewish and Muslim communities in Cape Town. He next accused the SAJBD of being unpatriotic simply for seeking to fulfil its mandate to uphold the constitutionally protected civil liberties of the Jewish community.
Now, he has compounded his insulting behaviour still further. His eleventh-hour withdrawal from a meeting he had previously agreed to attend, together with his declaring himself to be uninterested in any further mediation by the SAHRC, sends a clear message to South African Jewry and minority communities in general that he is disdainful of their concerns and has little respect for the constitutional processes that have been put in place to protect their rights.
In light of Deputy Minister Fransman's refusal to participate in any constructive process of engagement that might resolve the dispute, the SAHRC's investigation into the SAJBD's complaint against him will now be taken further.
Statement issued by Mary Kluk, South African Jewish Board of Deputies, June 11 2013
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