South Africans prepare to hold free and fair elections

Dear Fellow South African, 

In just over a month and a half, we will hold the seventh general election since we attained our democracy in 1994. 

South Africa’s electoral processes, together with the rights enjoyed by citizens and political parties to organise, campaign and contest, are among the greatest strengths of our constitutional order. 

Political contestation in our country takes place freely and openly. The media is free to report. We have independent courts that administer justice without fear or favour, including an Electoral Court that oversees the work of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the conduct of elections. 

As the country counts down to the election, the vibrant and robust campaigning that is taking place reflects how South Africa’s politics continues to evolve and mature. It is also a reflection of the many different views in our society and the variety of choices that voters have.

In a democracy such as ours, we should not be worried about differences, even when sharply expressed. That is because the vast majority of South Africans value and respect the democratic process. They have faith in the rule of law and know that any disputes can be resolved through the courts and other legal avenues.

Over the past 30 years we have held elections that are not only free and fair, but also peaceful and free of intimidation. Dire predictions of South Africa ‘regressing into violence’ or ‘democratic backsliding’ that regrettably remain a common feature of some reportage and analysis have been proven wrong time and again. 

According to the 2023 Electoral Integrity Global Report, South Africa ranks third highest on the continent when it comes to perceptions of electoral integrity. The report is made of up expert assessments of electoral integrity in 169 countries around the world, using indicators such as electoral laws and procedures, voting processes, campaign financing, media coverage and vote counting.

The majority of South Africans recognise the importance of their vote and believe they have a duty to vote. Research commissioned by the IEC found that, ahead of the 2021 local government elections, almost three-fifths of South Africans, or 57%, believed that it was their duty to vote. While youth apathy is often cited as a problem in our country, some 55% of 18-24 year olds saw it as their duty to vote. It is significant that young people accounted for over 78% of new voter registrations last year. The IEC research also found that the majority of respondents agreed that democracy is preferable to other kinds of government.

Despite its many challenges, our democracy is in good health. Even as political and other forms of contestation continue in the run-up to this year’s polls, they are taking place under the broad umbrella of a constitutional order characterised by fundamental freedoms and human rights. 

It is up to us all to ensure that this year’s election is a success in our ongoing journey of democratic consolidation. It is up to us all, whether as government, political parties, candidates, voters, the media or civil society organisations, to play our part by ensuring that our actions and words inspire faith in our democracy. We must continue to work together to ensure that nothing undermines the integrity of our elections.

Above all, it is up to us all to ensure that this hard-won right to vote, for which so many sacrificed so much, is exercised by every eligible citizen in a climate free of intimidation and all forms of violence. 

Having proven the prophets of doom wrong time and again, let this year’s election be yet another affirmation of the strength of our constitutional order, our institutions and our democracy. 

With best regards,
 

Fellow South Africans, please note that voting is scheduled to take place at the South African Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, 18 May 2024. Starting from 07:00am until 07:00pm. (Not 17 May as originally announced).  Please note that the voting station for South Africans to vote in Portugal remains only Lisbon, until further notice from the IEC.   

Eligible voters are only required to provide either their South African identity card/document or a valid temporary identity certificate when voting abroad.

Any further information received from the IEC regarding the voting day, 18 May 2024, location and procedures will be placed on the Embassy’s website page as well as on our Facebook page. Please continue to monitor these sites.

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

PUBLIC NOTICE – 01/2024

Dear South Africans and the Public

1. SWITCHBOARD TELEPHONE LINE

• Kindly be informed that the Embassy is experiencing technical problems with telephone lines and have requested the service provider to attend to it as matter of urgency. At times calls go through and sometimes calls do not get connected. We are aware of the challenges this technical glitch poses to service deliver and access to the Embassy. However, the line is active and in working order, except in cases where the line is engaged, your calls will not go through.

2. IMMIGRATION AND CONSULAR SERVICES HOURS

• The Embassy’s Immigration and Consular hours are from 08h30 – 12h30, Monday to Thursday, excluding public holidays. You may call between these times to secure appointment and for Immigration and Consular Services enquiries. No calls will be attended to after these times until the next day.

3. REVISED TURN AROUND TIME

• VISAS: It takes 10 -14 working days for the Embassy to process complete, accurately filled, and paid visa application forms. Applicants MUST NOT call or make follow-up on their applications. Our official will call you once your application is successful/approved/declined.

• PASSPORTS: It takes between 6 – 8 months for process passports applications. Please take note that this process is entirely dependent on the Dep: of Home Affairs in Pretoria. The Embassy commits to call the applicants to collect their passports as soon as they are issued. 

4. EMERGENCY LINE

• We urge the public to refrain from calling the emergency mobile number for the purpose of securing appointments and follow up on passports/civil service queries. This number is an afterhours contact line and is meant for emergency cases only (reporting death, accidents, urgent repatriation of mortal remains, robbery, floods, arrests, and similar cases). Our officials will not respond to civil service matters on this number, during office hours.

By Management

Monday, 8 April 2024

Never again must the world close its eyes to genocide

Dear Fellow South African, 

Thirty years ago, in the space of just a hundred days, one of the worst mass murders in recent times happened on African soil. 

Approximately 1 million men, women and children were slaughtered within a period of 100 days in Rwanda in an orchestrated campaign of violence that involved organs of state, civilians, militias, the local media and even churches.

The Rwandan genocide was one of the darkest chapters in human history. 
It was an atrocity that unfolded as the world looked on and failed to act. There was little intervention from the international community.

Despite a warning from the head of the United Nations deployment stationed in Rwanda at the time that a mass extermination of Rwandan Tutsi people was imminent, the UN peacekeepers failed to prevent the killings, arguing that their mandate was limited and that they lacked authority to intervene. 

Instead, the peacekeepers were ordered to focus on evacuating expatriates desperate to flee the country.

The first big massacre of the genocide was at a school in the capital, Kigali, which was being guarded by UN peacekeepers. Just hours after the UN troops withdrew, the feared Interahamwe militias stormed the school and killed 2,000 people who had sought shelter there hoping the UN would protect them.

Several western countries, some of which had a presence in Rwanda at the time, would later say they were not aware of the extent of the killings. Thirty years later, no country or international body can any longer say ‘we didn’t know’ and use that claim as justification for a failure to act. 

The advent of 24 hour news, the proliferation of social and community media and the speed with which information is disseminated in the digital age makes it nearly impossible for mass atrocities to occur under conditions of secrecy.

At the numerous Rwandan genocide 30th commemoration memorials, one finds the words ‘Never Again’.

This phrase, ‘Never Again’, also appears on memorials to the Nazi holocaust, and is evoked as a reminder to the world of the horrors perpetrated by humankind and of the collective responsibility we share to ensure that this dark history does not repeat itself.

The holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has called the phrase “a prayer, a promise, a vow, never again the glorification of base, ugly, dark violence”.

It is because of our stated commitment to never again allow atrocities of this kind, that the world cannot stand idly by as another genocide is carried out, this time against the people of Palestine in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Nobody can claim ignorance about what is happening in Gaza, because, unlike in Rwanda in 1994, these atrocities are being televised, written about, tweeted and live streamed.

It is now close to six months since Israel unleashed a campaign of violence on the people of Gaza in response to the atrocities committed by Hamas. 

More than 32,000 Gazans have been killed. According to the UN Children’s Fund, approximately 13,000 of these casualties are children. Civilians, non-combatants, women, persons with disabilities, journalists and even aid workers have been spared.

Late last year, South Africa instituted proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for violating its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, with respect to its actions in Gaza. 

The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the UN, pronounced on a set of provisional measures that Israel should take to prevent the commission of all acts falling within the scope of the Genocide Convention. The Court directed Israel, among other things, to ensure that its military does not commit such acts, to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and to enable the provision of urgently needed basic service and humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

In clear defiance of this legally-binding order, Israel has intensified its violence against the residents of Gaza. These people are now also facing starvation and famine as the delivery of aid continues to be disrupted, including the killing of humanitarian and aid-workers.

Last week, the ICJ issued additional measures, ordering Israel to take the necessary and effective measures to ensure ‘unhindered provision at scale’ of basic services and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. The Court accepted South Africa’s argument that, contrary to what Israel claimed, the UN agencies are not being assisted to get aid flowing into Gaza.

The court also ordered Israel to ‘ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit acts which constitute a violation of any of the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza as a protected group’ under the Genocide Convention.

When the Rwandan genocide unfolded in 1994, the Genocide Convention had been in existence for nearly half a century, having been adopted in 1948 in the aftermath of the Second World War. 

In spite of this, the atrocities in Rwanda didn’t just happen, but were allowed to happen in the face of callous indifference by the international community.

It was only several decades later that a number of these ‘bystanders to the genocide’ apologised for failing to act as the killings happened. As they were for the families of those who perished in the Rwandan genocide, for today’s genocide victims, apologies are too little, too late. 

It should never be, and must never be, that atrocities, gross human rights violations and genocide should somehow carry less weight because of the race, ethnicity or religious affiliation of the victims.

We owe it to the victims of all the world’s genocides to not betray their memories by looking away, by failing to act, or worst of all, by claiming we didn’t know. 

The terrible events in Rwanda in 1994 took place in the year we as South Africans attained our freedom. 

We are ever mindful that with that freedom comes a responsibility to work for peace, justice and human rights everywhere. It is a duty and a standard we will continuously strive to uphold, not just for ourselves but for all peoples, everywhere.

With best regards,