THE grandson of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela slammed British Labour shadow foreign secretary David Lammy on Friday, labelling him an apologist for genocide.

This came after Mr Lammy told a meeting of Republicans in Washington DC that the late South African president would not have agreed with the Gaza protests at campuses across the US.

In a statement, Zwelivelile Mandela noted that Friday marked 30 years since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first post-apartheid president of South Africa.

He said we should recall president Mandela’s words on that day, dedicating it “to all the heroes and heroines in this country and the rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives so that we could be free.”

He then dedicated the anniversary “to the students protesting on US university campuses.”

Mr Mandela called on Mr Lammy to remember the words of president Mandela during his visit to Gaza in 1995, when he said: “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people.”

He called on Mr Lammy to “stop being an apologist for genocide” and said he should instead be encouraging students to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and to support the struggle for Palestinian freedom.