Cape Town’s city centre has become the latest stage for scenes familiar from European capitals: a dense throng of asylum seekers and supporters filling the streets, many waving Palestinian flags, amid ongoing national tension over the reopening of the asylum system following a Constitutional Court ruling. The protest, captured in widely shared footage, comes as Home Affairs offices elsewhere face queues, disruptions, and counter-demonstrations by local residents alarmed at the scale of new claims.
Critics see the display not as isolated humanitarian concern but as part of a pattern in which mass migration coincides with imported political activism. Parallel debates in France, Italy and elsewhere have highlighted how rapid demographic change, combined with strong foreign political mobilisation, has strained social cohesion, public services and security. South African observers note that Cape Town, long a flashpoint for both pro-Palestinian marches and migrant-related disputes, is now showing the same combination.
At the centre of questions is Gift of the Givers and its founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman. While the organisation has a long record of disaster relief, Sooliman’s public record includes founding the South African branch of the Al-Aqsa Foundation (linked by critics to Muslim Brotherhood networks and later to the US-designated Union of Good), appearances at rallies under “We are all Hamas” banners, statements that he follows Koranic/Sharia law over secular or international law, and repeated use of classic tropes about “Zionists” controlling the world through money and fear. The group has also been active in providing material support to migrants and those seeking asylum or repatriation in the Western Cape. Transparency advocates continue to ask why full audited financial statements are not routinely published and where large international donations ultimately go—questions Sooliman has dismissed as requiring “irrefutable proof” before any investigation.
