The department of international relations & co-operation has sent a specialist team to Israel to negotiate the release of six detained SA activists.
In a short statement on Sunday afternoon, ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said: “Today, our specialist team met the SA delegation at the Negev Israeli Prison facility.
“The delegation has confirmed the detainees are in good health and in high spirits. The necessary procedures for their safe passage and return home to SA are advancing steadily."
The six were among a group of activists sailing to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) to provide aid.
Late president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela and Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg were among the group of more than 400 activists who came from 47 countries.
Other South Africans on board were Zukiswa Wanner, Reaaz Moolla, Zaheera Soomar, Fatima Hendricks and Carrie Shelver.
The flotilla was carrying food, baby formula, medicine and volunteers to Gaza.
The Global Movement to Gaza, a humanitarian group behind the aid, had expressed concern about the safety of the activists.
“They are still in detention. We have no information yet regarding our people. Our diplomatic mission has gone in [to where the activists are detained], because they need to be the ones to talk to our people to see that they are okay,” said Firoza Mayet from the movement.
There have been protests for the activists to be freed. By Saturday, the GSF said 328 activists remained in detention, while 134 others had been freed and deported to Turkey.
“The activists’ humanitarian mission was violently crushed,” the GSF said in a statement. “From the moment of interception, all activists were held incommunicado, with communication systems jammed, some subjected to degrading treatment and water cannons.”
The raid has triggered protests worldwide and in SA, with the community of Mvezo — under Mandela’s authority in the Eastern Cape — joining demonstrations calling for the immediate release of the detained South Africans.
Carrying placards reading “End the genocide in Gaza” and “Free Mandla Mandela”, protesters gathered outside the Mvezo Great Place alongside Mandela’s mother, Nolusapho, and his wife, Nosekeni Rabia Mandela.
“We want my son to be back home,” Nolusapho said. “We are asking the government to intervene so that my son and all other South Africans can be brought home. Israel, be human. My grandchildren are missing him.”
Nosekeni said her husband’s involvement in the flotilla reflected his lifelong solidarity with oppressed people. “My husband had to go on this mission,” she said. “He is being driven by the Palestinian struggle, and it resonates with him and the family so deeply because the conditions that they live under are not humane.”
In a statement, the Israeli foreign ministry described the flotilla as a “publicity stunt in service of Hamas”.
“Israel seeks to expedite the deportation of all provocateurs. However, some of them are deliberately obstructing the legal deportation process.”
The ministry said the deportees also included citizens from the US, Italy, the UK, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Algeria, Mauritania, Malaysia, Bahrain, Morocco, Switzerland, Tunisia and Turkey.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign leader Usuf Chikte said protests would continue until Mandela and the other detainees were released.
Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the interception reinforced Israel’s continued violation of international law and infliction of suffering, including starvation, on the people of Palestine.
“The interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla is another grave offence by Israel of global solidarity and sentiment that is aimed at relieving suffering in Gaza and advancing peace in the region,” Ramaphosa said.
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