South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned what he described as “crimes against humanity and genocide” committed by Israel against the people of Palestine, citing the deliberate starvation of civilians in the Gaza Strip. Speaking at the Liberation Movements Summit in Gauteng on Sunday, July 27, Ramaphosa said his country was “particularly horrified” by the withholding of food and essential aid.
He called for the immediate cessation of bombings, the protection of civilians, and global intervention to stop the killing of children and babies through hunger and warfare.
The summit, which gathered historic liberation movements from Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Namibia, and South Africa, was a platform for Ramaphosa to advocate for renewed unity among formerly colonised nations. He said the liberation movements must now lead a new struggle centred on economic justice, sovereignty, and regional integration in an increasingly polarised world. He asserted that political freedom alone is insufficient without structural reforms. Such as land redistribution, industrialisation, and youth employment.
Ramaphosa also decried what he termed the re-weaponisation of international institutions and warned of a calculated strategy by global powers to fragment and control Africa through economic coercion and transactional diplomacy. He described this as a “new scramble for Africa,” driven not by territory but by control over data, resources, and strategic minerals vital to green and digital economies. Africa, he stressed, continues to bear the ecological costs of industrialisation from which it did not benefit, and remains shackled by a legacy of extraction and exploitation by the Global North.