They were “glued to the television” Oct. 13 when Hamas released the hostages, Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway and Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela told the South African Jewish Report. Both are granddaughters of Nelson Mandela, the central leader of the fight that brought down apartheid in South Africa and was the country’s first black president. The sisters visited Israel and Gaza Sept. 27-Oct. 1, a trip they called both “eye-opening” and “life-changing.”
“When Israeli civilians were brutally attacked by Hamas and hundreds kidnapped, it was important for us to come in solidarity with the victims of violence, to understand Israel’s security realities firsthand,” said Dlamini-Manaway.
They told the magazine they were “shocked to the core” by the scale of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, with “people killed simply for being Jewish.” The hostages’ release “was an historic day for Israel,” said Dlamini-Mandela. “Having met families impacted by Oct. 7, and then seeing the family reunions, was so moving, we could not stop watching. It was painful and joyful. ”
The biggest eye-opener of their visit was seeing the large amount of aid distributed in Gaza each day, Dlamini-Manaway said. It’s “something that completely took us by surprise.”
They crossed into Gaza on Sept. 30 and assisted in distributing aid alongside the Global Humanitarian Foundation. “Our perception from reports in the media was that there was little to no aid going in at all, and that was completely untrue.”
The Israeli government set up the Global Humanitarian Foundation to try to prevent Hamas from continuing to divert aid or sell it at a profit. Hamas threatened to kill any Gazan who helped the organization, seeing it as a threat to their hold on power.
The two sisters helped distribute food to more than 10,000 women and children.
They said they were struck by the resilience among Israelis and Palestinians alike. “We saw pain everywhere, but also people refusing to give up on peace,” Dlamini-Manaway said.
They visited Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities worst hit by Hamas on Oct. 7, and to the Nova music festival site.
“Seeing how families were murdered for simply being Jewish will stay with us forever,” Dlamini-Manaway said. “We met a mother whose two sons were taken hostage. You could see Gaza from her house. She told us she never imagined something like this could happen because they had always felt safe.”
They also met Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son, Hersh, an Israeli-American, was taken hostage and murdered in Gaza. “Her story broke our hearts,” she said.
Their views differ sharply from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, which charges Israel with “genocide,” and from those of their cousin Nkosi Mandla Mandela. On the day the sisters left Israel, he was being held by Israeli special forces after participating in one of the provocative “aid” flotillas organized by Hamas supporters to breach Israel’s security cordon around Gaza.
“We come from a big family with diverse views,” said Dlamini-Manaway. “Our trip was about meeting and engaging with people on both sides of the conflict.”
“This has given us a new mission, to make sure that what we saw and heard is shared,” she said. “I feel obligated to tell others, to encourage South Africans who can, to go, see and learn.”