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Tweeps want govt to apologise to Miss SA Lalela Mswane
After withdrawing their support of Miss SA Lalela Mswane's participation in the Miss Universe pageant in Israel, the Presidency held a ceremony for the Israel ambassador a month later.
Miss SA Lalela Mswane participated in Miss Universe in Israel without the government’s support. Picture: Instagram/Twitter
South African Twitter users have pointed out how the South African government have failed Miss SA Lalela Mswane and that she deserves an apology, after the latest support by the Presidency for the state of Israel.
The Presidency posted pictures of President Cyril Ramaphosa receiving a Letter of Credence from the ambassador of Israel, Eliav Belotsercovsky.
The Credentials Ceremony took place at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guesthouse in Tshwane on Monday.
The smiling pictures took people by surprise, after government withdrew its support of Lalela’s participation in Miss Universe in Israel in December 2021.
Government’s reason for this was that they were standing with the oppressed, the people of Palestine in apartheid Israel.
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“The atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians are well documented and the government, as the legitimate representative of the people of South Africa, cannot in good conscience associate itself with such,” said Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa.
Despite the furore of her participation, Lalela performed well, and was a second runner-up in the 2021 Miss Universe pageant.
Twitter users called out the Presidency for receiving this letter of Credence from Israel, saying Lalela was isolated for no substantial reason.
There was an argument that government was not standing with Palestine as it stated it did before, that their comments against Lalela was completely hypocritically, and that the pageant queen deserved an apology.
Lalela experienced quite a divisive response with her decision to take part in Miss Universe in Israel, with some of the attacks personal as political parties and SA Jewish lobbies weighed in.
When she returned, Lalela was scathing calling out the government’s double standards and said her participation in the pageant was not her way of showing support to Israel and she would have still competed if it was held in Palestine.
“I’d like to think people viewed it as me being in support of Israel in the whole Israel-Palestinian war which is beyond me. It’s a conflict that commenced hundreds of years ago. It’s something that is so complex.
“And I actually often wonder if the people that are so against me even participating themselves even know why they’re so against me participating,” she said on Newzroom Afrika.
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