On 20 November 2025, the South African Journal of International Affairs published online a research article by New South Institute Executive Director and Co-Founder Ivor Chipkin, titled “From revolution to anti-imperialism: Does South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel help resolve the organic crisis within the ANC?” (DOI: 10.1080/10220461.2025.2587021).

The article examines the South African government’s decision to bring a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and situates it within what Chipkin, drawing on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, calls an “organic crisis” in the African National Congress (ANC). This crisis concerns the party’s claim to be a revolutionary movement and the erosion of the affective bonds that once tied members and supporters to the ANC.

Chipkin offers a periodisation of post-apartheid politics in terms of how successive ANC leaders have tried to manage this crisis via the theory of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). Thabo Mbeki sought to recast the NDR through the developmental state. Jacob Zuma reframed it as “radical economic transformation” (RET), a project that became closely associated with state capture. Cyril Ramaphosa, in turn, is shown to have managed internal party divisions by distributing competing tendencies across cabinet portfolios, while seeking to recover the ANC’s revolutionary credentials through foreign policy – in particular, by positioning South Africa as an anti-imperialist actor on the international stage.

Within this framework, the article interprets South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel as the most visible expression of a “revolutionist” foreign policy doctrine under Minister Naledi Pandor. Chipkin traces how lobbying by pro-Palestinian actors, especially those aligned to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, contributed to a shift from historic ANC support for the PLO and a two-state solution towards closer alignment with Hamas and, indirectly, with Iranian regional interests. He also notes the selectivity of the ICJ application, which targets Israel for genocide but does not seek findings against Hamas, despite debates about Hamas’s status as a state actor.

Finally, the article assesses whether this foreign policy turn has helped stabilise the ANC. Chipkin concludes that the ICJ case has not resolved the party’s organic crisis: it has neither curbed factionalism nor halted the ANC’s electoral decline in the 2024 elections and may expose South Africa to increased economic and political pressure, including in its relations with key trading partners.

The full article is available online via the South African Journal of International Affairs at: https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2025.2587021.