Gauteng table tennis club suspended for opposing Zionism and genocide

The Gauteng-based T2 Table Tennis Club says that its recent suspension from league competition is due to their stand against Zionism and genocide.

The club says it was penalised after it initiated a boycott of the Maccabi Table Tennis Club (now ‘Masters TTC’) due to its public affiliations with Zionism and support for the state of Israel. T2’s chairperson and founder, Mohamed Mansoor stated that the club believes that sports should be a force for good and cannot remain silent in the face of injustice, and aligns with Nelson Mandela’s principle that “Our freedom is not complete until the people of Palestine are free.”

The club has accused the Johannesburg Table Tennis Association (JTTA) of unfair treatment and bias by not addressing their concerns. According to Mansoor, at a meeting with the JTTA executive, their representatives were aggressively interrogated, while Maccabi TTC representatives who also sit on the JTTA executive, were not questioned.

In an online campaign that the club is running, it states that they were suspended for refusing to play against the Zionist-aligned Maccabi club that openly and unconditionally supports Israel. Maccabi TTC, according to T2, is affiliated to Maccabi South Africa, which states openly that it “actively promote[s] Zionism and support[s] the State of Israel”

In the context of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, Maccabi TTC changed its name to ‘Masters Table Tennis Club’ to, according to T2, cover its Zionist affiliations. The JTTA has accepted this name change without demanding any genuine disavowal of Zionism, accountability, or apology, according to T2.

“We have ceased engagement with the biased JTTA and have formally appealed to the South African Table Tennis Board (SATTB) to intervene and calling for an independent investigation, impartial adjudication, and for the right of clubs to take ethical, non-violent stands without fear of retaliation,” said Mansoor. T2 is not causing conflict, he insisted, but is rather committed to upholding the values and principles that South Africa’s struggle for freedom was built upon, and which are contained in the country’s constitution that is binding on all citizens, including sport bodies.

Emails sent to Johannesburg Table Tennis Association (JTTA) and Maccabi Table Tennis Club to give them a right of reply, went unanswered for weeks. We will publish their responses when we get them.