The African Christian Democratic Party has called on Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba, to monitor the public speeches of Palestinian struggle icon, Leila Khaled.
Khaled, who was in Port Elizabeth on Sunday, is on a country-wide fund-raising drive for the anti-Israeli lobby group, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.
She was in Port Elizabeth on Sunday and has also been invited to attend of the State of the Nation Address on Thursday.
In an open letter to Minister Gigaba, ACDP MP, Cheryllyn Dudley, said she could not understand how Khaled was granted a visa to the country, given her well known activities, which included plane hijacking and, as she put it, other barbaric acts.
"Khaled's presence in South Africa and at SONA, is in the opinion of the ACDP inappropriate in a world that has been torn apart by terrorist attacks. Hosting Khaled is not helping the Palestinian people particularly, or the Palestine cause which has itself been hijacked by terrorists, and the Palestinians deserve better. As President Zuma said, terrorism in every shape or form and from whichever quarter it comes is unacceptable."
Asked if Khaled, who was a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, had not been fighting a just cause, Dudley had the following response.
"The problem is not what she has done and what she may of become, the problem is that she is being elevated in terms of what she was. It does not take anybody forward in terms of democratic processes, a world that has embraced democracy and it is certainly glamorising terrorism and the act of terrorism. It's not about who she is or who she may be." says Dudley.
