Minister Ronald Lamola: Parliamentary debate on the escalating Middle East Crisis and the implications for South Africa

Remarks by Hon. Ronald O Lamola at the Parliamentary Debate on the escalating Middle East Crisis and the implications for South Africa, 19 March 2026

Remarks by Hon. Ronald O Lamola at the Parliamentary Debate on the escalating Middle East Crisis and the implications for South Africa

Mr President,
Honourable Speaker,
Honourable Members,

Yesterday, we received the sad news of the passing of one of our finest diplomats, Nicholas Haysom - a patriot who dedicated his life to the birth of a united, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa.

We mourn him not only as a great patriot, but also as an internationalist who served the cause of peace and justice with distinction across our continent and the world.

I had the distinct honour of working with him in South Sudan. His commitment to democracy and Africa's quest to silence the guns was never in doubt.

He leaves an indelible mark on multilateral institutions at a time when they are under unprecedented strain.

On behalf of the South African government, I hereby convey a message of condolences to his family and loved ones.

Honourable Smith has accused the GNU, of which the DA is part, of cherry-picking on human rights.

Our answer is simple.

Honourable Smith and Hattigh, history has no record of a people being liberated by bombs falling from the sky, by chemical weapons poisoning their environment or by war destroying their future.

Not in Vietnam. Not in Afghanistan. Not in Iraq. Not in Libya. And certainly not in Iran.

Our response to the situation in Iran has been consistent. Let me remind you what we have done:

• We supported the rights to peaceful protest, freedom of expression and freedom of association as universal rights that must be upheld.
• We supported calls for an independent inquiry into human rights violations by all sides.
• And we have made clear that sustainable peace can only come through solutions that centre dialogue and respect the agency of the Iranian people.

Yours is a straw-man argument.

You denounce the GNU's foreign policy as one-eyed and unconstitutional.

You have also repeatedly claimed that this foreign policy will alienate South Africa from the democratic world.

But you are wrong.

Country after country has joined South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice on Israel's violation of the Genocide Convention. The Netherlands and Iceland are among the latest to do so.

Apart from the US, 19 members of the G20 supported our Presidency G20 Leaders Declaration.

Your predictions, and perhaps even your wishes, of isolation have not come to pass.

And as for this charge of a one-eyed foreign policy, is it not better directed at those who took part in a sponsored tour to Israel in 2025: the DA, the ACDP and others.

We also must ask: where were your eyes when you walked through occupied land and claimed not to see apartheid?

You saw checkpoints and segregated roads. You saw humiliation and hunger. Yet you came back and said you saw no apartheid.

What would Helen Suzman think of that?

You accuse us of one-eyed foreign policy, yet it is your vision that is blinkered.

Standing at this podium and peddling discredited and unproven conspiracies from think tanks in Washington is cheap political point scoring, Honourable Smith.

Honourable Mulder, the ANC's foreign policy is not anti-America, it is anti-imperialist - a call to respect our sovereignty in line with Article 2 of the UN Charter.

Honourable Members,

Geopolitics and geo-economics have become intertwined - with trade, technology, finance, food security, energy security and climate policy all being used as instruments of strategic competition.

The blockade of the strait of Hormuz is a clear demonstration of this.

War is deadly.

Its first victims are those on the battlefield and the civilians caught in the crossfire.

As we debate this matter, thousands have been killed in the ongoing confrontations between Israel and the United States on the one hand and Iran on the other.

Nearly a million people in Lebanon have been displaced by the conflict.

Citizens of the Gulf states have also not escaped these deadly confrontations.

War is destructive.

It destroys societies and arrests development long after the guns have gone silent; long after the bombs have stopped dropping.

At this very moment, homes, schools, hospitals and transport hubs in the region have been reduced to rubble.

War is costly.

The price that South Africans are paying for continued hostilities in the Middle East is too great.

Today, it is almost certain that South Africans will be paying more for transport fare than they did last month.

The price of bread and maize meal is also likely to rise as fertiliser prices increase.

That matters because high fertiliser costs put farmers under pressure. With fertiliser accounting for 35% of farmer input costs, that pressure will be passed directly on to households.

Many who live and work in the cities, far from home, may soon have to choose between travelling to see their loved ones over Easter and holding back the little they have for necessities.

Those planning the religious pilgrimage to Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of the country may have to think twice, or travel knowing that the journey will leave a big hole in their pockets.

This all means that the cost of living could go up barely a month after the budget speech had shown positive indicators for our economy. This crisis could undo the good work to reset our economy.

This is the price of war, and it is ordinary people who pay it most dearly.

The hefty price of this war featured prominently on the agenda of the SADC Council of Ministers responsible for trade, industry and foreign affairs in Pretoria last week.

Eastern and southern Africa depend on the Middle East for 75% of their fuel imports.

The impact of the war is already evident: higher input costs for farmers, higher food prices, rising inflation, and shortages of food and other essentials.

Africa's debt crisis, a central concern of our G20 Presidency agenda, could worsen as a result.

The IMF forecast global growth at 3.3% this year, but that outlook may yet be revised downward if hostilities persist. For export-reliant economies on our continent, a slowing global economy will mean weaker demand, lower earnings and greater fiscal strain.

This is why the SADC Council of Ministers agreed to convene a meeting in May to assess the crisis and forge a collective response.

Honourable Members,

The responsibility of those entrusted with leadership is not simply to recount atrocities of war.

To the DA, the responsibility of those entrusted with leadership is not simply to point fingers. It is about taking responsibility and providing solutions. You can't claim victory out of the GNU but then retreat to blaming the ANC when crisis strikes.

Leadership requires us to respond to the challenges of this moment, even when we are not the direct actors.

That is exactly what this government, under the leadership of President Ramaphosa, is doing.

Honourable Members,

This war confirms the emerging global consensus that sovereignty is as much about international law as it is about state capability.

It depends on whether a state has the internal capacity to withstand pressure, absorb external shocks and act in defence of national interest.

This demands both immediate action and long-term resolve.

As we have heard from Minister Tau, In the immediate term, government has moved to strengthen the legislative and policy framework needed to support greater petroleum exploration and more secure domestic supply.

The Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Act was an important step in that direction, and further measures, including reforms in the petroleum products space, are also being advanced.

This moment also demands close coordination between the state and industry. DMRE is in constant engagement with industry to plan, anticipate risks and secure uninterrupted supply for domestic consumption.

The DTIC has been tasked to come up with measures to cushion the economy against predatory pricing.

At the same time, we must keep our eyes on the long term.

We must look seriously into expanding domestic refining capacity, advancing biofuel and making full use of the capabilities we already possess, including coal-to-liquid and gas-to-liquid capacity.

This crisis is a warning of what could befall our nation if we don't build domestic capabilities.

We should not let this challenge go to waste.

Even as we work to build resilience for the long term, we remain seized with the immediate diplomatic tasks at hand.

First, we continue to provide consular support to South Africans in the affected countries.

More than 6 000 South Africans in the region have now registered on the DIRCO Travel Smart App.

Thousands of South Africans who were affected by flight cancelations in the Middle East have returned home.

Our missions in the region continue to share updates and guidance with citizens who live, work and study in the region.

Second, government expressed serious concern regarding the escalation of tensions and the widening of the war.

We called on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to remain within the bounds of international law.

We have also been clear that so-called pre-emptive or anticipatory self-defence has no basis in international law.

We have also been unequivocal that retaliation against Gulf countries violates the UN Charter and risks widening the conflict.

Third, we continue to call on all parties to return to negotiations through UN-led multilateral processes.

A few weeks ago, South Africa took part in an extraordinary meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors.

We used that platform to call for a world free of nuclear weapons, drawing on South Africa's exemplary decision to voluntarily dismantle its nuclear weapons capability and retain nuclear technology solely for peaceful civilian purposes, including medicine and energy.

We must also say that attacks launched while efforts towards a peaceful settlement were under way weaken trust in negotiations as a path to peace.

When bombs fall while parties are still at the table, diplomacy itself is damaged.

Honourable Members,

War is deadly, destructive and costly.

While the geopolitical situation is grave, this is not a moment for despair.

With the measures we are putting in place at both the domestic and diplomatic levels, we are confident that our country can weather this storm.

We have overcome hardship before - the Covid pandemic, the natural disasters of recent years and the devastation of the July 2021 unrest.

Working together, we can overcome this too.

I thank you.

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