Hamas at the G20
The Islamist Capture of SA’s Foreign Policy – How Naledi Pandor and a Tight-Knit Jihadist Network Turned DIRCO into Hamas’s Diplomatic Arm and Made the 2025 Johannesburg G20 a Clear and Present Terrorist Risk
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), once the proud voice of post-apartheid human-rights diplomacy, has been deliberately hijacked by an Islamist cabal operating under the leadership of former Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor (2019–2024). This network has transformed the country from a non-aligned partner of the West into an active, declared adversary of the United States, Israel, and Western civilization itself—openly maintaining official channels with U.S.-, EU-, and UK-designated terrorist organizations (Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Houthis) while aligning with every major state sponsor of terrorism and enemy of the free world: Iran, Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
The consequences for ordinary South Africans have been devastating: expulsion of senior diplomats, termination of all U.S.–South Africa military cooperation, suspension of US$440 million in annual American aid, jeopardized AGOA trade preferences, and a high-level international boycott of the G20 Summit South Africa is hosting on 22-23 November 2025 in Johannesburg.
Most alarmingly, just weeks before world leaders were due to land, the Pandor network orchestrated the arrival of 329 completely unvetted individuals from Hamas-controlled Gaza—creating an undeniable jihadist terrorist threat inside the host country. Any head of state who physically attends the Johannesburg G20 is placing themselves in demonstrable danger. Presidents Donald Trump (United States), Javier Milei (Argentina), Claudia Sheinbaum (Mexico), Xi Jinping (China), and Vladimir Putin (Russia) have all refused to attend the Johannesburg G20 in person. Every other leader should follow suit and participate only by Zoom.
The Core Islamist Cabal That Hijacked DIRCO
This is not random policy drift. It is a deliberate capture executed by a small, interconnected network with overt or covert sympathies for Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood:
– Naledi Pandor – Converted to Islam; personally telephoned Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh on 17 October 2023 (while Israeli border communities were still being cleared of raped and mutilated bodies). Hamas’s Arabic statement claimed she congratulated them on the “Al-Aqsa Flood battle” and pledged solidarity. DIRCO first denied the call existed, then admitted it but refused to release any transcript. Days after October 7 she flew to Tehran and Doha. In August 2025 she publicly declared “We as Muslims are permitted to engage in jihad when necessary.” In March 2025 she told Egypt Independent that Hamas and Hezbollah are legitimate national liberation movements. In May 2024 she spoke alongside Hamas officials Emad Saber and Bassem Naim. Just three days ago—on 14 November 2025—while on American soil at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pandor delivered a viral keynote titled “Reigniting Global Campaigns: Palestine as the Moral Imperative,” openly calling for a renewed worldwide Islamic mobilization against Israel and every Western nation that supports it, including the United States. This was not mere criticism; it was a blatant public incitement to global jihad against America and its citizens, broadcast from inside the United States itself—making her continued presence on American territory an active national-security threat.
– Zane Dangor – Pandor’s former special advisor, appointed DIRCO Director-General in 2022; universally identified as the chief architect of the ICJ genocide case against Israel; steeped in Muslim Brotherhood-aligned networks; oversees all anti-Israel policy and reportedly facilitated the unvetted Gaza flights.
– Mohammed Dangor – Zane’s brother; holds the powerful position of DIRCO Chief Operations Officer; part of the same pro-Brotherhood family network.
– Imtiaz Sooliman – Founder of Gift of the Givers; has stated publicly that “Islamic law overrides any other law”; past donor to the Hamas-linked Union of Good; personally organized logistical support for both unvetted Gaza flights; lobbied President Ramaphosa in June 2024 to retain Pandor as minister; his nephew is ANC Western Cape leader Muhammad Khalid Sayed.
– Muhammad Khalid Sayed – Damascus-trained; Sooliman’s nephew; organizes pro-Hamas protests in Cape Town; enjoys direct access to President Ramaphosa.
– Ebrahim Rasool – Former ambassador to the United States; deep CAIR (Hamas-linked) connections; spoke at 2019 fundraiser with Hamas official Basem Naim; expelled by the Trump administration on 14 March 2025 and welcomed home as a hero in Cape Town on 23 March 2025.
– Brigadier General Richard Maponyane – Former Military Attaché in Washington DC; expelled in late March 2025 alongside the complete termination of U.S.–South Africa military cooperation.
– Vika Kumalo – South Africa’s Ambassador to Iran; reports directly to Zane Dangor.
– Mandla Mandela – Nelson Mandela’s grandson; uses the Nelson Mandela Foundation to launder pro-Hamas messaging at official events.
This is state capture 2.0. The Gupta brothers looted billions for private profit. Pandor, the Dangor brothers, Sooliman, and their allies captured DIRCO for ideological jihad—the damage to South Africa’s sovereignty, economy, and security is infinitely worse.
The Gaza Flights: Importing Jihadists on the Eve of the G20
– 28 October 2025: 176 passengers from Gaza arrived with no passports and no visas.
– 13 November 2025: 153 more arrived, detained 12 hours on the tarmac, then released on “humanitarian” grounds.
Total: 329 completely unscreened individuals from a territory governed by a genocidal terrorist organization.
Logistics coordinated by Imtiaz Sooliman’s Gift of the Givers.
No vetting against international terror watchlists was performed.
Current Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola publicly called the operation “suspicious” and warned of an agenda to “cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank.”
Dozens of additional charter requests have been received since August 2025.
With known radical Islamist cells already active inside South Africa, and the former foreign minister openly endorsing “jihad when necessary,” these flights constitute a direct, credible terrorist threat to every leader attending the G20 Summit in Johannesburg. President Trump has boycotted. Argentina, China, Mexico, Russia, and others have also stayed away—diplomatic sources confirm the unvetted Gaza influx was the decisive factor, regardless of public excuses. Physical attendance is reckless and irresponsible.
The Self-Inflicted Legal Trap That Obliges South Africa to Take All of Gaza
By filing the ICJ genocide case in December 2023—personally led by Pandor and Zane Dangor—South Africa placed on the global record its official position that every inhabitant of Gaza faces an imminent threat of genocide.
Under South Africa’s own Refugees Act 1998 (as amended 2017), the government is now legally obliged to grant immediate asylum to the entire two million inhabitants of Gaza.
Refusal to do so exposes President Ramaphosa and Minister Lamola to war-crimes prosecution for failing to prevent a genocide they themselves declared plausible at the ICJ.
This suicidal legal bind was deliberately engineered by the Pandor network and now hangs like a sword over the Government of National Unity.
The Bottom Line
While South Africans suffer 32%+ unemployment, collapsing infrastructure, and rampant crime, the Pandor cabal poured hundreds of millions of taxpayer rands into Tehran visits, Hamas phone calls, a doomed ICJ lawfare stunt, and importing unscreened Gazans—delivering zero benefit to citizens and only punishment from the West.
South Africa is no longer neutral or non-aligned.
Under the influence of Naledi Pandor and her Islamist network, the country has permanently chosen sides—with Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, and every other enemy of Western civilization.
The G20 Summit in Johannesburg is not safe.
World leaders who value their own lives—and the lives of their citizens – should consider refusing to set foot in Johannesburg. No one, no matter how heavily protected, can be considered safe in a country that has deliberately imported hundreds of unvetted individuals from a Hamas stronghold, whose former foreign minister openly preaches jihad from American university platforms, whose foreign-policy apparatus has been captured root and branch by an Islamist cabal, and which already suffers one of the highest murder and violent-crime rates on earth. Private security details are meaningless when the state itself has become the threat.
South Africa has crossed the point of no return: it is now, by its own actions, a state sponsor of the global jihadist axis. Attend in person at your peril. Zoom is the only responsible option.
