Backlash as UK slaps visa ban on Nelson Mandela's grandson

by Yvonne Ridley

Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela (2nd R), Member of the Council of Leaders of the Global Summit on Palestine and grandson of Nelson Mandela, speaks during the European Muslim Forum (AMF) called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Israel from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, in Istanbul, Turkiye on July 18, 2024. [Hakan Akgun/Anadolu via Getty Images]

The British government has stopped Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla, a staunch supporter of Palestine and its people, from coming to give a series of talks in the UK. Critics say that the government has cited spurious grounds for the visa ban.

Chief Mandla Mandela has, until now, travelled freely around the world using his diplomatic passport issued as a democratically-elected member of the South African government. However, his plans to tour the UK during Black History Month were in disarray last night after British Foreign Office officials questioned the validity of his diplomatic visa.

The unprecedented move probably serves to illustrate the far-reaching influence that Israel has on the UK government. It certainly looks that way, given that pro-Israel lobbyists fund more than half of Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet. They appear to be getting their money’s worth.

Chief Mandela is also scheduled to speak in Dublin.

Officials there have distanced themselves from the Starmer government decision and confirmed that the Irish leg of his tour will go ahead as planned.

“The parallels are striking between the past British treatment of Nelson Mandela and the Starmer government’s decision,” said Mick Napier, co-founder of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) and a member of the award-winning Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee (GGEC). He lambasted the crude attempts to ban Mandela’s grandson. “During the time that Nelson Mandela was categorised by the UK government as a properly-convicted terrorist rightly incarcerated for 27 years on Robben Island, he was given the honorary freedom of three Scottish cities: Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee.”

Napier pointed out that the government which is blocking Chief Mandela’s visit is filled with supporters of Israeli apartheid and its genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. “This is a genocide, remember, that has been deemed plausible by the International Court of Justice, in a case taken to The Hague by South Africa.”

Yvonne Ridley and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, in Istanbul, Turkiye, in April 2024 [Yvonne Ridley]

The Scottish events planned with Mandela were being seen as an opportunity to revisit the worldwide struggle against South African apartheid and apply the lessons learnt to the fight against Israeli apartheid and genocide.

The GGEC organisers were prepared for the British government’s interference and made contingency plans. The Scottish meetings will thus go ahead in:

Edinburgh: 12 October, 2pm, Augustine Church, George IV Bridge;

Dundee: 13 October, 7pm, Queens Hotel, Nethergate;

Aberdeen: 14 October, 7pm, King’s College, University of Aberdeen; and

Glasgow: 15 October, 7pm, Renfield Centre, Bath Street.

Live satellite links will allow Chief Mandela to address and engage with the audiences at each venue.

Similar arrangements are in place for an event in Sheffield today, Thursday, 10 October and in Manchester tomorrow, Friday.

Members of the Labour Party are said to be furious at what the government has done.

“These are the sort of tactics we have come to expect from the Conservative Party who once labelled Nelson Mandela as a terrorist,” one told me on condition of anonymity, fearing a backlash from Starmer’s party. “If someone had told me this was going to happen even under Keir Starmer’s watch I would have said ‘no way’. It would never have happened under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.”

Napier explained that, “There is no more important issue in the world today and we deserve to hear an important voice in support of international law and the cruelly-violated Palestinian people, especially since the US and London governments actively support Israel during the commission of a genocide.”

Although the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the chief genocidaire remains welcome in Downing Street and the White House.

“There is a double irony that during Black History Month we see genocide supporters in politics and the corporate media calling for Mandla Mandela to be banned from the UK, reprising the attacks by Margaret Thatcher and many others against his grandfather Nelson Mandela, now an international icon of South Africa’s struggle for freedom,” added Napier.