As an Economic Freedom Fighters Member of Parliament, I write this opinion piece with deep outrage. Reports confirm that Navitas Petroleum LP, an Israeli oil and gas firm, is poised to take operatorship of Block 1CBK in the Orange Basin off South Africa’s west coast. Through Navitas Petroleum Africa Limited, it seeks a 37.5% participating interest and operatorship from Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas Ltd., with Eco Atlantic and OrangeBasin Energies (Pty) Ltd holding the balance. This block, the northern-most on our West Coast, extends about 250 kilometres along the Namibia border and covers approximately 19,907 square kilometres of our sovereign seabed.
This proposed transaction is not merely commercial. It is a profound political and moral affront. While South Africa has taken the principled and courageous step of instituting proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, we are simultaneously entertaining the idea of allowing an Israeli company to exploit our natural resources in our own waters. This is hypocrisy of the highest order. It undermines our internationalist credentials and makes a mockery of the solidarity we claim with the oppressed people of Palestine.
As a veteran of the liberation struggle, I know what it means to stand firm against apartheid. Whether the old regime in Pretoria or the Zionist apartheid regime in Tel Aviv. The parallels are clear. Just as we demanded the isolation of apartheid through sanctions and disinvestment, so must we now demand the complete severance of all ties with Zionist apartheid Israel. Business as usual is complicity in genocide.
The government’s inconsistency is glaring. While we pursue justice at the ICJ, Israeli companies like Navitas Petroleum LP are allowed to conduct business relations with South Africa. This cannot continue. All financial and business relations with Zionist Israel must be severed immediately and without exception. There can be no partial measures or selective engagement. Israeli firms must not be permitted to profit from South African resources or opportunities while their government perpetrates atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Transparency is non-negotiable. The South African public deserves a full and honest account of this proposed transaction. Under what policy framework is it being considered? Has there been any political or ethical assessment of the implications? Decisions of this magnitude, involving a state accused of genocide before the world’s highest court, cannot be shrouded in secrecy. We demand immediate disclosure of all relevant documents and proper parliamentary oversight.
This pattern of double standards extends beyond oil and gas. The ongoing export of South African coal to Israel remains a shameful reality. Minister of Trade and Industry Parks Tau, in response to my written question NW1291 in the National Assembly (answered on the May 5, 2026), indicated that there are no plans to review or halt these exports. In 2025 alone, South Africa exported 1.8 million tonnes of coal to Israel, accounting for 2.6 percent of our total global coal exports of 71.5 million tonnes. This coal is not abstract trade; it fuels the Zionist war machine. It powers the infrastructure that sustains the occupation and the genocidal assault on the Palestinian people. The EFF and all progressive forces denounce this policy as a direct betrayal of the Palestinian struggle. These exports must stop forthwith as part of any credible commitment to isolate the apartheid regime.
The 2023 resolution tabled by the EFF in Parliament calling for the immediate severance of diplomatic ties with Zionist Israel was adopted by an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly. Yet, to this day, President Cyril Ramaphosa has abused his executive powers regarding diplomatic relations to keep the Israeli embassy open in South Africa and to maintain these ties. This is not merely inconsistency; it is a deliberate defiance of the expressed will of Parliament and the people of South Africa. It exposes a profound disconnect between our stated foreign policy principles and actual practice. Such conduct cannot be allowed to continue.
These developments cannot be viewed in isolation. They form part of a broader pattern that raises alarming questions about the forces at work in our society. We must ask whether the current stoking of divisions, including ethnic divisions inside South Africa, and the Afrophobic attacks on fellow Africans by the hate group March and March—which receives funding from Zionist business interests—should be linked to the Cape Exit movement. These activities appear calculated to fragment our national unity and create conditions more favourable to Zionist capital. An independent Western Cape, detached from the national government’s pro-Palestine stance and its leadership at the ICJ, could provide a more compliant base for Zionist business operations, free from the moral and political accountability demanded by the broader South African populace. The insidious and destructive role that Zionist business people and Zionist money continue to play in our politics, economy, and society must be confronted head-on by the government. It threatens our sovereignty, undermines our unity, and weakens our revolutionary integrity.
As someone who has witnessed and participated in the long struggle against oppression, I know that unity is our greatest strength. The enemy of yesterday sought to divide us through Bantustans and ethnic manipulation. Today, similar forces—financed and amplified by external interests—seek to sow discord through Afrophobia, xenophobia, and separatist projects like Cape Exit. We must reject these divisions with the same determination we once rejected apartheid. The people of South Africa, united in their solidarity with Palestine and their commitment to radical economic transformation, will not be divided.
The time for half-measures has passed. The EFF insists that full-scale financial and economic sanctions be implemented against Zionist apartheid Israel without further delay. This must include comprehensive trade embargoes, divestment mandates for all public and private institutions, a complete prohibition on Israeli company operations in South Africa, and active support for the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. These measures are not only morally imperative; they are the logical extension of our ICJ case and our historical legacy of isolating apartheid regimes. They are essential to protect our own resources and sovereignty from entanglement with a pariah state.
South Africa’s natural wealth—whether in our offshore waters, our mines, or our energy resources—belongs to the people of this country. It must serve the cause of radical economic transformation, job creation, energy sovereignty, and the upliftment of the majority, not the profits of foreign entities complicit in genocide. The proposed involvement of Navitas Petroleum LP in Block 1CBK must be rejected outright. The government must urgently develop and enforce a clear, lawful policy prohibiting all commercial and diplomatic engagement with Israeli companies and the Zionist state.
Revolutionary love—the kind Che Guevara embodied and which I’ve written about numerous times—demands consistency. I’ve also stated that the personal is political and the political is personal. Therefore, in both our political and personal capacities, we must stand with the oppressed without compromise and confront both external enemies and internal influences that weaken our resolve. Anything less will be a wanton betrayal of our own integrity and indeed of ourselves.
The world has looked to South Africa for principled leadership. Today’s decisions will show whether we endure as a moral force, or squander our authority for expediency. The people must rise and demand accountability—flooding the streets and corridors of power with the insistence that principle triumphs over profit.
My revolutionary duties as an EFF Member of Parliament demand of me to continue to raise these issues both in Parliament, and overall in the public domain. I will thus continue to draft questions, statements, and interventions that expose this hypocrisy and push for decisive action. But this struggle cannot be left to parliamentarians alone. It belongs to all of us who believe in a free Palestine and a truly transformed South Africa.
History will judge us by our consistency. Let us sever every tie with Zionist apartheid Israel, stop Navitas Petroleum, implement full sanctions, defend our unity, and stand unapologetically with the Palestinian people until victory.
A Luta Continua!
