Ariel Seidman, the Israeli chargé d’affaires who was expelled this week, had come to be seen as a serial offender by the South African government, which had previously rebuked him for publicly criticising President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Government officials said that in the past few weeks the department of international relations & co-operation (Dirco) had issued a demarché upbraiding Seidman, Israel’s most senior envoy to Pretoria, for social media posts insulting the president. A similar offence — criticising President Donald Trump — resulted in Ebrahim Rasool being expelled from Washington in March last year.
The last straw for Pretoria was a trip to the Eastern Cape in January by Israeli diplomat David Saranga, who visited two government hospitals and the Walter Sisulu University without giving Dirco prior notification.
Saranga also had meetings with AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, who has formed close ties with the Jewish state. The Israeli embassy posted on X that the hospital visits were to discuss co-operation with the Sheba Medical Centre, Israel’s largest hospital.
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane condemned the visit, telling the Daily Dispatch that such engagements undermined South Africa’s constitutional processes and the country’s sovereignty in conducting international relations.
Dirco said on Friday it had given Seidman 72 hours to leave the country following a “series of unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty”.
Minister Ronald Lamola’s spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said Seidman’s actions represented “a gross abuse of diplomatic privilege and a fundamental breach of the Vienna Convention”. They have systematically undermined the trust and protocols essential for bilateral relations. South Africa’s sovereignty and the dignity of its offices are inviolable.”
Saranga is reported to have made more than one visit to South Africa.
According to government sources, the Israeli embassy ignored the established protocol that the host country be notified in advance of visits by foreign officials.
When a senior official from the capital comes to the host country, you have to inform the host country and who they will be meeting
— Government source
“When a senior official from the capital comes to the host country, you have to inform the host country and who they will be meeting,” one source said. “We put out a notice to all diplomatic missions to kindly inform the department when there are formal visits… They [Israel] did it again, and they didn’t inform us this time."
The source said Sangara’s activities — he apparently offered Dalindyebo Israeli humanitarian aid following flood damage — amounted to a calculated campaign against the government. “Pretoria views these under-the-radar visits, specifically a controversial meeting with King Dalindyebo, as a strategic move to bypass the central government and stir public resentment.”
The Israeli government has since retaliated by declaring South Africa’s senior diplomatic representative, Shaun Edward Byneveldt, persona non grata. It called the allegations against Seidman a “false attack” and said additional steps would be considered.
In his statement on Friday, Dirco spokesperson Chrispin Phiri accused Seidman of “the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks against President Cyril Ramaphosa and a deliberate failure to inform Dirco of visits by senior Israeli officials”.
The action against Seidman is likely to further damage South Africa’s relations with the US, the Jewish state’s closest ally. The Trump administration has already expressed outrage over the genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice and among other things falsely accuses the ANC government of conducting a “white genocide”.
Phiri said South Africa could not allow itself to be swayed by such considerations.
“If we had to factor in what other nations say, then it means we don’t stand for anything. What we are showing is that we are willing to stand up for ourselves, particularly when we believe our sovereignty has been violated and when we are being disrespected,” he said.
The government source said “no self-respecting government would tolerate what the embassy was doing. We know that in other countries people have been PNG’d [declared persona non grata] for far less critical remarks on a head of state.”
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