GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary General
26 October 2026
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has defended his party’s failure to acknowledge Navi Pillay’s achievements as South Africa’s fifth Nobel Peace prize laureate, accusing the globally feted former UN Commissioner for Human Rights and Judge of the International Criminal Court of being divisive.
Whereas former prime ministers HF Verwoerd and PW Botha showed similar contempt for previous Nobel Laureates Albert Luthuli and Desmond Tutu, in defence of apartheid South Africa, Hill-Lewis’ disrespect of Judge Pillay in a radio interview last week was rooted in defence of apartheid Israel.
What Hill-Lewis appears to miss is that the committee responsible for identifying Nobel Peace Laureates deliberately seeks to reward people who by the nature of their social justice work are regarded as divisive and unworthy by those charged with maintaining injustice.
That’s why just about the only negative responses to Pillay’s award came from Donald Trump, Israel and South Africa’s DA.
Hill-Lewis is entitled to his opinions, but he is not a lawyer, does not serve on the International Court of Justice, and should leave it to the qualified people to judge whether Israel is guilty of genocide. And he should have the emotional intelligence to understand the extent of the global division his beloved Israel has engineered in defence of injustice in the so-called Holy Land.
Though Hill-Lewis sought in his radio interview to vanilla-coat his responses on Israel and Pillay, stating of the Nobel Prize that he had “no doubt that it’s a very special thing for her and indeed for our country”, he couldn’t escape the DA’s track-record of subjectivity in favour of Israel at all costs.
In 2017 he accompanied then-DA leader Mmusi Maimane on a propaganda trip to Israel that included a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu. Last year, at the height of the genocide, a bunch of DA MPs visited Israel again, where they claimed that the majority of South Africans did not support the country’s case of genocide against Israel – and to have seen no signs of apartheid or injustice.
The DA’s contempt for Pillay is not rooted in any principles or values. If it was, the DA should explain the values underpinning its vehement opposition to land expropriation without compensation at home, but not in Palestine’s West Bank.
The DA’s contempt is rooted in the party’s unquestioning support of Israel, which includes contempt for justice in Palestine.
Navi Pillay has contributed more to South Africa and the world than Hill-Lewis ever will. He should show some respect.
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