ANC confirms its friendship with Iran

African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has confirmed the party’s friendship with the current Iranian regime amidst the war with the United States and Israel.

On 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel launched a coordinated, large-scale offensive against the Iranian regime.

The United States called its military action Operation Epic Fury, while Israel refers to it as Operation Roaring Lion.

United States President Donald Trump has explicitly stated that the goal of the operation is regime change, calling on the Iranian people to rise up.

In the opening hours, Israeli strikes, supported by US intelligence, targeted the residence of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, resulting in his death.

This has left the Iranian government in a state of decapitation, now led by an Interim Leadership Council.

Strikes have hit over 14 major cities, specifically targeting IRGC command centres, nuclear facilities, and ballistic missile caches.

Iran has responded with what is being called its most aggressive counter-attack in history, expanding the war beyond Israel and the United States.

Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, United States bases, and civilian infrastructure in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE.

The latest strikes followed the 12-day war in June 2025, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, which targeted Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

The current campaign is significantly larger in scope and aimed at the total dismantling of the Islamic Republic’s leadership.

In the months leading up to the current war, the Iranian regime engaged in the deadliest and most systematic period of domestic repression since the 1979 Revolution.

The brutality of the regime escalated sharply in late 2025 and early 2026 as it struggled to maintain control against a backdrop of economic collapse.

The ANC backs its friend Iran

The ANC and the South African government have taken a firm stance against the joint US-Israeli military operation.

The political party cited violations of international law and a historical alliance with the Iranian regime.

Mbalula posted a video of Nelson Mandela meeting with the Iranian leader, saying, “Two freedom fighters meet in Tehran”.

“Lest we forget, prior to the Iranian revolution, the Shah’s regime was a close ally of the apartheid regime,” he said.

Mbalula explained that the apartheid government was getting oil for a song from the Shah’s despotic regime.

“In 1979, things changed through the leadership of Imam Khomeini, supported by Shaheed Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khameini, to cut ties with racist South Africa,” he said.

“Their stance was clear – Iran cannot have relations with a racist, oppressive regime,” Mbalula added.

“Shah’s family was exiled, and they were welcomed by the apartheid regime, and to this day, they still own a house in Joburg.”

Mbalula ended his post about Iran, saying, “We must not forget our friends.”

The DA criticises the ANC’s stance

The Democratic Alliance (DA) slated the ANC’s stance, characterising its support for Iran as a betrayal of the country’s constitutional values and a sign of moral bankruptcy.

The DA spokesperson on international relations and cooperation, Ryan Smith, said the ANC’s hypocrisy on international relations was on full display.

“South Africa’s silence on Iran is not just an indictment on our country, but on the ANC leadership that has traded ethics and morality for political power,” he said.

“The ANC has no legitimacy referring to itself as a liberation movement if it remains complicit in the atrocities committed by the Iranian government against its own people.”

DA-aligned commentators have argued that the removal of Khamenei was justified, given Iran’s record of regional proxy wars and killing its own citizens.

John Steenhuisen and other DA leaders have criticised the ANC for picking a side that offers no economic or strategic benefit to South Africans.

They pointed out that while the ANC sheds a tear for the Ayatollah, South Africans are paying the price through a weakened rand and rising fuel costs.