Open Letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa From Salman Khan. A Cry from the Valley: South Africa’s Moral Test in the Shadow of Kashmir.

A Cry from the Valley: South Africa’s Moral Test in the Shadow of Kashmir

By: Salman Khan (South African Kashmir Action Group (SAAKAG)  Kashmir Global Movement (KGM)]Date: 7^th Nov 2025

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

Your Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa,

South Africa stands today at a moral crossroads — one that echoes the haunting questions of its own past. Once, our nation cried out beneath the brutal weight of apartheid, and the world answered with conscience and courage. Today, as we prepare to host the G20 Summit in November 2025, another people cry out — the people of Kashmir — and the question arises: will South Africa now answer, or will we turn away?

The Wound That Never Heals

The tragedy of Kashmir has haunted the conscience of the world since 27 October 1947, when Indian troops entered the valley under a controversial arrangement, igniting one of the most protracted and painful conflicts of the modern era. The region — covering over 80,000 square kilometres, inhabited by over 14 million souls, and lying between India, Pakistan, and China — remains the most militarized zone on earth.

For more than seven decades, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have been denied the right to self-determination — a right explicitly guaranteed by 58 United Nations Security Council resolutions. Instead, they have endured wars, mass detentions, communication blackouts, enforced disappearances, and the suffocation of their civil and political freedoms.

The world witnessed a renewed siege in August 2019, when India unilaterally abrogated Article 370 of its Constitution, stripping Kashmir of its limited autonomy and placing it under direct military rule. The move was not merely political — it was ideological. It signalled the full transformation of the Hindutva project from fringe extremism to state policy.

From Ideology to Institutionalized Oppression

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — envisions a Hindu-only India, an idea that stands in direct contradiction to democratic pluralism. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this ideology has translated into a systematic campaign of hate, exclusion, and persecution — from the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, where thousands of Muslims were slaughtered under his watch, to the current occupation and demographic engineering in Jammu and Kashmir.

What began as prejudice has hardened into policy. What was once ideology has become institutionalized violence.

The Constitutional Conscience of South Africa

Mr. President, the Bill of Rights (Chapter 2) of our Constitution — the moral soul of our democracy — declares that “everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.” It promises equality before the law, freedom, and justice for all.

These principles were not gifted; they were earned — through struggle, blood, and international solidarity. The same solidarity that liberated South Africa from apartheid now calls upon us to extend that moral courage to others.

By extending an official invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the G20 Summit, our government risks betraying those principles. It risks signalling that South Africa — once the global symbol of justice — now chooses diplomacy over conscience, and convenience over courage.

The Weight of International Responsibility

As a signatory to the UN Charter, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and numerous international human rights treaties, South Africa carries a binding obligation to uphold and promote the dignity of peoples under occupation.

The UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir remain active and unfulfilled. They affirm the right of the Kashmiri people to determine their own future through a democratic plebiscite. India’s continued occupation, its revocation of autonomy, and its ongoing human rights abuses directly contravene international law and the spirit of decolonization that the United Nations was founded upon.

Mr. President, silence in such matters is complicity. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu warned, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Reclaiming the Spirit of Mandela

When the world turned its back on apartheid South Africa, it was the moral outrage of ordinary people — from Delhi to Dar es Salaam — that kept hope alive. Today, the people of Kashmir stand in that same shadow of oppression, waiting for nations like ours to stand with them.

To host Prime Minister Modi in South Africa would be to desecrate the memory of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Albert Luthuli — men who taught the world that freedom is indivisible. Mandela himself reminded us:

“Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

That truth extends beyond Palestine — it echoes through the valleys of Kashmir.

A Call to Action

Mr. President, we urge you — in the spirit of Ubuntu, in honour of our Constitution, and in defence of the oppressed — to revoke the invitation extended to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the G20 Summit in South Africa.

This call is not an act of hostility; it is an act of integrity. It is a reaffirmation of our moral standing as a nation born from resistance and grounded in human dignity.

Let the G20 Summit be remembered not as a gathering tainted by hypocrisy, but as the moment South Africa reclaimed its moral authority — the moment we stood once again for justice without borders.

History Is Watching

Mr. President, the world watches as South Africa prepares to welcome global leaders. History, too, watches — as do the ghosts of those who perished in the fight for our own freedom.

May we not be remembered as the generation that betrayed their legacy. May we, instead, rise as the nation that once again chose the side of humanity.

Revoke the invitation. Redeem our conscience. Restore our moral voice.

I thank you in advance for your kind consideration and solidarity.

Let South Africa stand — as it once did — on the right side of history. Aluta Continua

Sincerely Yours,

In Struggle

Salman Khan. Paul Harris Fellow, T.I

Chairman SAKAG & KCAU

South African Kashmir Action Group

Kashmir Centre for African Union

Cell: 082 691 6048

email: salkhan1@yahoo.com

Issued by:Kashmir Global Movement (KGM)In solidarity with the oppressed people of Jammu & Kashmir.

Date: 7^th Nov 2025