Naledi Pandor

Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor (née Matthews; born 7 December 1953) is a South African politician, educator and academic serving as the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation since 2019. She has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the African National Congress (ANC) since 1994.

Pandor in 2022

Quotes

• We believe human rights should be available to everybody equally and not to some, and that if we say that we’re committed to freedom, human rights, and democracy, it doesn’t mean to a particular country or people. It means all over. So we try to espouse that perspective.
  • The goals of South Africa-U.S. Strategic Dialogue and what is expected from the relationship

• Blacks tend to still be a minority within the robust areas of the economy. They don’t own land. They don’t own shares in businesses. So we’ve got to change that because we cannot really live with a history where the majority are poor forever.
  • Her reply when asked how South Africa's government tend to build on the strength of the U.S. government, South Africa’s government—facilitating private sector investment

• The notion of international rules is very comfortable for some people to use when it suits them but they don’t believe in international rules when it doesn’t suit them because they don’t apply international rules or law equally in all circumstances.
  • How the power dynamics will come out in favor of the African continent, not just South Africa, having more say and more influence on several things

• You can’t say because Ukraine has been invaded that suddenly sovereignty is important, but it was never important for Palestine. It’s very peculiar. If you believe in international law, truly, then wherever sovereignty is infringed it must apply and this is the point we’ve been making, that we use the framework of international law unequally depending on who is affected, and we are arguing that that must change.
  • A Conversation With Minister Naledi Pandor of South Africa (14 September 2022)

• We’ve got to rethink the multilateral system, ensure it’s more fair, more open, transparent, and democratic.
  • The revision she is looking for

• Your power must lie in the degree to which everybody feels represented.your power lies in you having authority over everybody and bullying you’re not really powerful. You’re a bully.
  • Her own meaning of power, differentiating power and bullying
• this real crime against humanity.
  • https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/15/south-african-minister-says-world-has-seen-enough-violence-in-palestine aljazeera (November 15,2023)
• We are appalled at how this horror and tragedy that is unfolding continues to get worse and worse. I think the world has seen enough, and it is time for the most powerful in the world to put a stop to this horror that Israel is unfolding against the people of Palestine.
  • https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/15/south-african-minister-says-world-has-seen-enough-violence-in-palestine aljazeera (November 15,2023)
• We would have anticipated that the ICC would react much earlier because thousands of people have been mowed down.
  • https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/15/south-african-minister-says-world-has-seen-enough-violence-in-palestine aljazeera (November 15,2023)
• We know people cannot own property, [and] that property can be seized without any compensation, which is what we experienced in our own country. People have to carry identity documents that reflect your ethnicity rather than citizenship. All of this is part of the apartheid feature.
  • https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/15/south-african-minister-says-world-has-seen-enough-violence-in-palestine aljazeera (November 15,2023).