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‘We want Hitler’ heard at council meeting
During stormy debate in Johannesburg council another local politician threatened to wear a shirt with the face of the Nazi tyrant
March 17, 2025 16:44
During stormy debate in Johannesburg council another local politician threatened to wear a shirt with the face of the Nazi tyrant
March 17, 2025 16:44A South African local politician was heard to say “We want Hitler” while another threatened to wear a shirt with the face of the Nazi dictator during a meeting of the Johannesburg city council.
Tebogo Nkonkou, a member of the mayoral committee of the council who represents the Pan Africanist Congress, interrupted a Jewish colleague with the remarks last Thursday.
He had taken offence at Democratic Alliance councillor Daniel Schay, who was wearing a yellow pin for the hostages, an Israel-themed tie and a laptop with the Israeli and South African flags.
Nkonkou said the Israeli flag represented the killing of innocent civilians and demanded it be removed from the chamber, according to a video recording of the meeting.
Equating the actions of the Jewish state with the Nazis, Nkonkou told the speaker Nobuhle Mthembu: “I will also come in a shirt with the face of Hitler and our flag, I will do that because you allowed this to happen.”
Talking over the speaker, he added, “I will come here with the face of Hitler because these people are killing innocent children and women.”
Cutting him off, Mthembu said: “You are setting a very bad example.”
Then another councillor could be heard saying, “We want Hitler.”
As Schay resumed speaking, he asked for Nkonkou to be referred to the ethics committee, “for ignoring your rulings”.
Later in the meeting, an Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF) member said of the Israeli flag: “We can’t stand the flag of an apartheid country in a country where we experienced apartheid.”
“Kids are being killed in Gaza even today, and you are watching,” said the EFF councillor.
Other councillors heckled Schay, with shouts about the “racist flag” and chanting, “From the river to the sea, free Palestine.”
African National Congress councillor Adolph Marema also condemned Schay for “wearing – proudly so – symbols of Israel… We welcome all religions as prescribed by the Constitution of South Africa, including the religion of the Jewish. What we can’t stand is apartheid Israel.”
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) condemned the “deeply offensive and hateful” remarks inside the chamber. “Such rhetoric is abhorrent and has no place in our democratic society,” the SAJBD said.
“The audible statement ‘We want Hitler’ is a blatant act of antisemitic intimidation directed at the one visibly Jewish councillor. Such remarks are not only morally repugnant but also legally indefensible.
“For an elected public representative to invoke Hitler – a figure synonymous with genocide and the systematic extermination of six million Jews – as a means of threatening a Jewish councillor is despicable, deeply offensive, and contrary to the values that all South Africans hold dear.
The SAJBD statement went on, “South Africa’s democracy thrives on diversity and mutual respect. There can be no place for those who seek to sow division and hatred in our society. We call on the Johannesburg City Council to sanction these councillors.”
Posting on X on Friday, Schay said: “Hate in South African Politics is real.” He claimed that Nkonkou “serves at the behest” of the country’s president Cyril Ramaphosa. He said the behaviour of the African National Congress-led body demonstrated why US President Donald Trump wanted to sanction the party.