Green and gold meets rainbow nation
AUSTRALIA'S Jewish community is inextricably linked with South Africa and now the government is working on building closer ties.
NAOMI LEVIN
LATER this year, the eyes of the world will turn to South Africa when the country hosts one of the globe’s most-watched sporting events -— the soccer World Cup.
With the Socceroos among the 32 nations competing for the coveted gold trophy, there will certainly be plenty of interest from these shores.
However, it’s not just on the pitch that the Australian Government is hoping for success. It’s also hoping to reap the benefits off the field.
Last month, seven years after an Australian foreign minister last stepped foot on South African soil, Stephen Smith spent two days in Pretoria.
While there, he met with South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and other African National Congress dignitaries.
Cynics will no doubt accuse the Rudd Government of focusing on Africa for selfish reasons — to try to secure votes for a temporary seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council for 2013-14. However, others argue that Australia is doing itself a disservice by not having closer ties with its fellow middle power and Southern Hemisphere neighbour.
South Africa has twice the population of Australia, but its economy is substantially less developed. While Australia’s GDP totalled more than $1 trillion in 2009, South Africa’s GDP was, in comparison, a miserly $311 billion.
Looking more closely at personal finances, an Australian earns, on average, eight times more than a South African. In addition, our African neighbours struggled against an inflation rate of 7.2 per cent in 2009.
When it comes to trade, the countries are hardly indispensable to each other, but potential looms.
In 2008-09, two-way trade between the countries was worth more than $4 billion.
For Australia, South Africa represents its biggest African trading partner and exchanges have grown by seven per cent, on average, during the past five years.
In a bid to attract some loot to her shores, Foreign Minister Nkoana-Mashabane called for more Australian investment.
“We would want to encourage more of the Australian potential investors to take advantage of the opportunity in South Africa, as much as South African people take advantage of the opportunity Australia offers them,” she said.
Smith added: “Trade and investment are pillars of the relationship.” Moving away from the economic side of things, the two countries have close cultural bonds.
Speaking at the South African Institute for International Affairs, Foreign Minister Smith highlighted a well-known aspect of the two countries’ relationship.
“We are great competitors in sports, such as cricket, rugby and football. This competition is fierce and ongoing, but the linkages built between our countries are enduring,” Smith said, referring to themany nail-biting rugby games or cricket tests that have been played for close to a century.
Sport played a role in the minister’s recent visit as he received a briefing from the South African World Cup Organising Committee and also visited the Australian Football League (AFL) indigenous under-17 team, the AFL Boomerangs, who were on a tour of South Africa.
According to the CEO of the AFL Foundation, James Mifsud, the tour had social as well as sporting benefits.
“The tour shared with South Africa the AFL’s experience of utilising sport as a vehicle to generate lifestyle outcomes from indigenous people and communities,” he said.
Trade Minister Simon Crean was also in South Africa last month to congratulate 19-year-old Bayanda Sobetwa on receiving a scholarship with the new AFL team Greater Western Sydney. Sobetwa is the first South African player to be offered a chance at glory in the AFL.
While the Jewish community may not be the UN’s biggest supporter, Smith has also strongly indicated that South Africa and Australia must work more closely within the influential global body.
The reasons he gave were admittedly odd and don’t really accurately reflect the two countries’ pasts: “As good international citizens, Australia and South Africa share a fundamental commitment to multiculturalism, good governance and democracy.”
Smith continued: “We both attach great importance to the UN Charter on Human Rights and support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People”. Recent events would cast these comments in doubt though. South Africa was the host of one of the most anti-Semitic and anti-Israel events in the past decade, when the UN World Conference on Racism was held in the coastal city of Durban in 2001. That conference was under the auspices of the UN’s Commission on Human Rights.
Similarly, Australia’s record on the rights of indigenous people has been seriously called into question with the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act, following the Government’s Northern Territory intervention.
Australia, though, does have a history of strong action when it comes to racism in South Africa. Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser was a staunch advocate of an end to apartheid, petitioning to prevent business and sporting ties between the countries.
And in answer to those cynics, Smith did not totally lay to rest accusations that Australia’s focus on Africa is due to its Security Council seat pitch. He discussed the controversial UN body at length with his South African ¬≠colleagues.
Following those discussions, he said the countries agreed the UN Security Council needs to better reflect “the emerging realities of global power and influence”.
When questioned by local journalists, Smith was cryptic about both countries’ bids for Security Council seats.
“If events were to transpire where South Africa was on the Security Council for 2011-2012 and Australia for 2013-2014, there would be very many areas of shared interest where we would essentially have a four-year opportunity,” he said.
Yiddishkeit in Johannesburg
CENSUS figures suggest around 20 per cent of Australia’s Jewish community is South African-born, but what is life like for those Jews still living there?
The AJN spoke to Johannesburg-based sisters Kerri Simon, 36, who lives in Sandton, and Carmen Upiter, 41, a resident of Linksfield.
They said that since the economic downturn, the rate of Jews leaving South Africa seems to have slowed.
“Approximately two years ago, there was a general awareness that people were processing applications to emigrate, but since the global recession, the general talk and amount of people or families that have left has slowed down.”
The sisters, both stay-at-home mums, said Jewish life in Johannesburg remains vibrant, despite a significant community exodus since the early 1990s.
Their children —- aged between four and 15 years old —- all go to Jewish schools and have plenty of Jewish friends. But that’s not the case for all youngsters.
“Our children’s friends are mainly Jewish because they are at Jewish schools, but families where the children participate in outside-school extramural [activities] do form friendships with kids of other religions.”
In addition, the community continues to support an “abundance” of shuls and Johannesburg’s biggest supermarket stocks a wide variety of kosher food, including kosher meat.
The only downside for the sisters is the economic situation -— unemployment is high, the cost of living is escalating and food prices are soaring, but Jewish life continues.
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