Thapelo Amad, the mayor of Johannesburg, generated a lot of discussion on social media when he arrived for work wearing a Palestine scarf.

Amad was elected with the support of the governing African National Congress (ANC) party, which holds the most seats in the council but fell short of an outright majority at the 2021 city elections. Struggling politican Renaldo Gouws took to his Twitter account to post a picture of the mayor and left this caption, “His first day in office and he is already more concerned about Palestine than South Africa.

Well done ANC/EFF/PA. Imagine it’s your first day in office with so much pressure on you. Would you want to send any other message than “I am focused on South Africa”. Him wearing that was to send a message. What a way to represent ALL people in his metro, especially Jewish people.”