In the bustling streets of Cape Town, dilapidated white minibuses are a common sight. For decades, these communal taxis have been a primary means of transport in South Africa, particularly for working class Black residents – denied access, through apartheid and now poverty and infrastructural collapse, to car ownership and public transport. It’s 11 January, and a small group of young men are gathered around a parked minibus near Greenmarket Square. A loudspeaker is broadcasting live from The Hague, where South Africa has just launched its legal case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), charging the state of Israel with genocide.
The transfixed crowd only had to wait two weeks for the court to deliver its interim judgement. A decision on whether Israel has committed genocide could take years, but in the meantime the court has announced ‘preliminary measures’. It stops short of calling for a ceasefire as South Africa has requested. But it instructs Israel to prevent genocidal acts, including the killing of Palestinians, ruling that South Africa’s case is ‘plausible’ under the Genocide Convention.
