Robert Hersov argues that South Africa's government alignment with anti-Israel positions at the International Court of Justice has emboldened antisemitic rhetoric in schools like Roedean, where weak leadership and parental silence allow activist intimidation. He calls for zero-tolerance policies on religious harassment and stronger governance to protect all students.
Chapters
The title of this is Rodin, the ANC, and the price of moral cowardice. You're being told this is a misunderstanding, a diversity issue, a complex situation. It's not. It's what happens when weak leadership meets ideological intimidation. And our children pay the price. My mother, my sisters, and a lot of my relatives went to Rhodesien. I went to Michaelhouse. And we are pretty horrified and disgusted about what's going on at Rhodesien right now. Rhodesien's controversy did not emerge in a vacuum. It sits inside a national climate where the ANC government has repeatedly aligned itself diplomatically with anti-Israel positions while ignoring rising antisemitic rhetoric locally. That tone matters because it filters down. South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel at the ICJ, and they did that in December 2023. Whatever your view on the case—and I think it was ludicrous—but whatever your view, That message globally was clear. The ANC government has chosen a side. And South Africa's Jewish population is roughly 50,000. 75,000 people, less than the 0.1% of the population. Yet antisemitic incidents spike during Middle East conflicts, certainly according to reports from local Jewish watchdog groups. Small minority, larv targeting. The ANC has longstanding ties with terrorist groups like Hamas and other Islamist-aligned movements, dating back to the apartheid era, but it has no excuse for those. Historical alliances don't excuse present-day blindness. And elite private schools like Rhodine charge extraordinary fees, I mean, north of 300,000 rand per year in some cases. And parents are not paying for ideological experiments. What are they paying for? They're paying for educational excellence, safety, and leadership. And these aren't vibes. These are facts. And facts create climates. And climates shape behavior. What is the reality of the situation? This Rodin debacle? Here's the blunt truth, whatever way you look at it. When a governing party like the ANC normalises hostile rhetoric towards the world's only Jewish state, it lowers the social cost of hostility towards Jews locally. You don't need a memo, and you don't need a mood. When school administrators, like in Rhode Island, prioritize appeasement over principle, they send another message: noise beats norms. And when parents stay silent because they don't want trouble, they complete this triangle.
Before we get into today's story, Truth Report has launched a back-a-buddy initiative called Hold the Line for Warus. This is our R1 million drive to support the 3 sons of Warwick Stock, launched with the full support and consent of the Stock family as the official fundraiser. A trust is being set up for Warus's children through Hanukkah attorneys who have volunteered their services. If you're able to donate, thank you. If you can't, that's okay too. Sharing the campaign helps a lot. The link is in the description Or you can screenshot this QR code. Thanks for your support. Let's hold the line together. Now let's get back to today's story. Who are the winners?
Ideologues, activists who thrive on division. And who are the losers? Jewish families, Jewish students, moderate Muslims, and ordinary families in South Africa who just want a safe, apolitical, education. And there's cause and effect. You have political signaling, emboldened activists, cowardice, and children who are caught in the crossfire. And they call it solidarity. But if it spills into intimidation or exclusion, which it has at Rodin, it is discrimination. And discrimination against anyone is poison. And not just poison in a school. I think it's time for a wake-up call. And the wake-up call is, why aren't more leaders, business people, government, school administrators saying this out loud? Because confrontation is uncomfortable. Because donor politics are messy. And because in today's climate, calling out Islamist extremism is immediately reframed as attacking all Muslims, which is false. Let's be crystal clear. Islamists are political actors who want religion fused with state power. And that's not the same as ordinary Muslims raising families, building businesses, living peacefully, and being great citizens, which most are. But when Islamist narratives enter schools unchecked, framing global conflicts in absolutist, moralised, us-versus-them terms, young minds absorb it. Young minds don't miss these things. And timing, timing matters. South Africa is in economic distress, in case you haven't noticed. Youth unemployment's about 40%. Growth barely scraping 1 to 1.5%. It's a joke. That isn't growth. And crime levels that are driving emigration from this country. That's a disaster. And in that environment, scapegoating minorities is a dangerous historical reflex. We've seen it before and it never ends well. For South Africa, This is eroding social trust, the invisible capital every economy depends on. For parents, it means your school can drift from excellence to activism overnight. And if you think this stops with one minority, you haven't studied history. They come for you next. So facts are a stubborn thing. They really are. And the curious task of economics is to demonstrate how little we know about what we imagine we can design. That was a quote by Hayek. I didn't come up with it myself. Where is Rodin today? The headmistress has resigned, but everyone is suffering. And courage is the keyword. Schools exist to educate, not indoctrinate. Governments exist to protect citizens equally, not signal ideological loyalties, A and C. And where's the bottom line of this story? The bottom line is very simply, what do we do? First, Schools, and this means all schools, must adopt a zero tolerance policy for religious or ethnic intimidation across the board. Transparent, enforced, and no favourites. Second, governing boards of schools must publicly reaffirm constitutional principles: equality before the law, freedom of religion, and freedom of association. Not selectively, universally. Third, parents must stop outsourcing moral responsibility. They need to stand up. If you're paying premium fees, if you're paying fees at all, demand clarity, demand neutrality, and demand safety for your and other people's children. We're going to measure it, track it, report it, publish anonymized data, show resolution timelines, Because transparency builds trust. And governance matters. We know that as business people and as people trying to make a difference in this country. We need independent oversight, clear disciplinary codes, and no activist capture of institutional culture. A business analogy: if Rodin were a company, this would be a brand risk crisis. And you don't solve brand risk by appeasing the loudest Twitter account. You solve it with governance, clear policy, and values alignment. If you dilute your core product, excellence in safety and a top education, if you compromise that, your customers leave, capital exits, reputation compounds negatively, and nationally, If the ANC continues blending foreign ideological alignment with domestic politics, the ANC must accept responsibility for the social ripple effects. Leadership is influence, and influence carries consequences. What's the upside if we get this right? Okay? If we fix Rhodesian? You get schools that defend principle and principles become stronger. You get a country that protects minorities and attracts capital. You get social cohesion, which is not soft, it's economic infrastructure. That's the way I like to look at it. This isn't about Israel, it isn't about international affairs, and it isn't about partisan point scoring. This is about whether South Africa can protect its minorities, all of them, when it's inconvenient. That takes true leadership. So let's stop excusing cowardice as complexity. Let us stop mistaking appeasement for compassion. And you need to stop outsourcing your thinking. You need to stand up, defend principle, protect our children, and hold leadership accountable. Stand up, speak out. And if you like this video, please act. Speak out and share it. Share it as wide as you can. I want to finish on a poem, one of the great poems, my top 10 that I love, and a verse from "If" by Rudyard Kipling. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowance for their doubting too. Courage, balance, principle. That's the standard.
