What’s Really Behind South Africa’s Persecution Of The Famous Pan-African Activist Kemi Seba?

Russia and its other BRICS partners would do well to launch their own pressure campaign behind the scenes in his support.

Bloomberg cited South African court papers in early August to allege that Russia financed the famous Pan-African activist Kemi Seba’s unsuccessful attempt to escape the country earlier this year to avoid extradition to Benin on politicized charges sparked by his opinion on its failed coup attempt last year. Seba was arrested by undercover officers masquerading as smugglers, who he solicited to help him cross into Zimbabwe, and remains in custody to this day. His next extradition hearing is on 23 September.

Although Benin has pragmatic ties with Russia, including allowing its navy to make port calls in the capital, it’s still considered to be very close to its former French colonizer. This is important since Seba was born in France to Beninese parents, previously arrested by France due to his activism, and stripped of his French citizenship in 2024. He’s famous for denouncing France’s neo-colonialist policies in Africa and organizing rallies against it. Benin might therefore be doing France’s bidding by seeking his arrest.

Likewise, South Africa is arguably doing the same despite being a member of BRICS and openly practicing what can objectively be described as a multipolar foreign policy, possibly under pressure. After all, it didn’t have to set Seba up with undercover agents, which also reveals that its secret police were monitoring him. While it’s possible that a Western-friendly faction of its “deep state” is responsible for his persecution, the buck still stops with the government as a whole, whose actions are condemnable.

To make everything even more scandalous than it already is, the South African court papers allege that “Séba was to exit into Zimbabwe and fly to Europe to carry out terror attacks there and in the UK and the information also mentioned that the person is trained by the Russians and is extremely dangerous.” Bloomberg didn’t mention whether any evidence was presented within those papers in support of this claim, so it shouldn’t be taken at face value, instead likely being a pretext to keep him behind bars.

Seba’s Pan-African activism is actually in South Africa’s objective interests as well so it’s surprising that the country is persecuting him even if it’s under pressure. After all, it stood up to the US in the face of Trump 2.0’s pressure campaign that was superficially about the Boers but arguably about much more as explained here at the time, so it’s difficult to imagine it capitulating to pressure on an issue as symbolically significant as Seba’s persecution is. This is especially so if the pressure came from France.

Interestingly, Seba’s Pan-African activism also advances France’s objective interests since the sovereign, prosperous, and stable Africa that he envisages would reduce population outflows, plus France and other European countries would enjoy a much more predictable investment environment. The problem, however, is that the French State as a whole subjectively believes that its interests rest in subjugating and exploiting Africa. That’s why France hates Seba so much and is likely behind his persecution.

All things considered, the best-case scenario is that South Africa releases Seba and allows him to leave the country, perhaps to Russia where he’d be safest. Be that as it may, it’s already held him custody this long, so the likelihood of that happening is low. Since South Africa is likely persecuting him under pressure from the US and/or France (the second being the most probable culprit), Russia and its other BRICS partners would do well to launch their own pressure campaign behind the scenes in his support.