The Afrikaner refugees fallacy exposes the malady in SA-US relations

NEVER in the history of democratic South Africa has so few caused so much pain to so many and with impunity.

The preposterous saga of a very tiny minority of Afrikaners who this week flew to the US under the utterly false pretence of escaping persecution has pooh-poohed Mandela’s dream of a South Africa for all races regardless of history.

My great comrade and fellow writer, Gillian Schutte, captured it all so well when she posted on X: “This is not the Great Trek of wagons and rifles. It is the soft trek of displaced entitlement. Just the silent movement of whiteness away from discomfort and toward reabsorption into a global order that still centres it.” Phew!

President Cyril Ramaphosa has been at pains attempting to convince the President Donald Trump administration that empirical evidence shows no proof of any iota of the alleged persecution of the Afrikaner community in democratic South Africa.

The Minister in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), Ronald Lamola, has also done his bit, trying strenuously to push back against the false narrative of discrimination against the Afrikaner based on their skin pigmentation, beliefs, religion or any basis for that matter.

Thus far, Pretoria’s decorous diplomatic engagements with Washington appear to have fallen on deaf ears. The most unfortunate consequence of this developing sorry saga is that some, perhaps many, outside of South Africa, believe this balderdash. For in plain language, the claptrap behind allegations of persecution is indefensible in any court of law, including the public court of opinion.

The flight of unpatriotic Afrikaners who are reeling from the displeasure of losing the privileges of institutionalised racial discrimination triggered by the advent of democracy and equality before the law has cast misplaced scrutiny on South Africa’s transformative agenda.

A flurry of twists and turns, laced with utter falsehoods and geopolitical bullying of the weak by the powerful, all this is a concocted recipe to discredit a developing democracy that seeks to write the wrongs of the past in pursuit of a brighter future for all citizens.

Amid the ensuing brouhaha, South Africa’s sovereignty somehow stands in the dock of the US’s kangaroo court that has arbitrarily found Pretoria guilty as charged by the likes of AfriForum, sections of the DA, Institute of Race Relations, Solidarity and others overtly or covertly.

Taking advantage of a hugely liberal Constitution that guarantees freedoms such as those of speech, thought and association, the fake refugees take umbrage with the country’s developmental agenda without any fear of repercussions.

Had it not been for the liberal nature of the predominantly Western-aligned Constitution, surely to travel abroad and speak ill about South Africa, conniving with foreign forces against the sitting administration would constitute high treason.

I also want to argue that this debilitating litany of lies about our country exposes the lingering fault lines in geopolitics and modern-day international relations practices. In my book, it reveals the extent of overbearing ideological power and dominance of the global neo-liberal forces that is premised on the notion of universal racial solidarity.

Let’s call it for what it is: The anti-transformation movement against South Africa is a heavily funded, well-oiled machine that assumes various forms and postures. It seeks to portray, sadly, with great success, the ANC-led governance of the country as anti-white and hell-bent on victimising minority groups particularly Afrikaner farmers.

The movement is also hugely networked in a world that has become interconnected and interdependent thanks to globalisation. Inside the Trump administration, it boasts powerful contacts such as South African-born Elon Musk, who also happens to be the world’s wealthiest person.

For the uninitiated, South Africa’s democracy was founded on the back of hard negotiations between the Mandela-led ANC and the De Klerk-led segregationist white minority regime of the National Party.

The Codesa negotiations produced a negotiated settlement and later a liberal Constitution that guarantees protection of property rights. This section of the law insulated the minority white population of the country against any threat to the wealth they had amassed over more than 350 years of black subjugation.

For the record, to this day, there is no single member of any minority group, including Afrikaners, ever to be threatened with the loss of any rights under the challengeable laws of the land. The dirty campaign against South Africa by a tiny minority of South Africans, therefore, serves as a blatant affront to the inclusive foundations of our nascent democracy.

Since the first batch of Afrikaners flew out in a chartered plane from OR Tambo International en route to the land of Coca-Cola and hamburgers that symbolise the mink and manure, there has been a heightened debate about race relations in our country. The conclusion is, however, not difficult to reach: Despite a myriad of dichotomous standpoints, the centre first built by Madiba and De Klerk still holds firm.

But that said, it would be foolhardy to ignore the reputational damage and significant harm caused to the international standing of South Africa by the Trump administration’s mischievous peddling of falsehoods about our country’s complex and difficult transition from the old to the new order.

Just as Trump believes in the misrepresentation of facts, so too are millions of especially the Republican voters, who believe the balderdash espoused by some among us, against us. It is this certainty of the looming damage to South Africa’s good name that pains me more. It hurts deeply, because our own citizens have elected to disown us in the most ignominious fashion — hanging our dirty linen in public and inconsiderately seeking to throw us to the wolves.

The Ramaphosa-led government has been accused of enacting the Expropriation of Land without Compensation to the detriment of the Afrikaners who own large swathes of land acquired at the height of apartheid through the displacement of Black people. Yet the truth is, the Act speaks of a careful need to free relevant portions of land parcels for “public good” should the need arise.

No single Afrikaner farmer has been targeted. But for those who are hankering for the preservation of apartheid-era white privileges, they’d like the US and the rest of the West to view South Africa with jaundiced eyes, and accordingly punish the country by imposing sanctions.

The hurt that all patriotic South Africans should feel at this point is owing to the sheer impunity that the Judases who flew out as refugees this week enjoy, thanks to the most powerful nation on Earth. Just the other week, our Constitutional Court also ruled that people such as the fake refugees may never lose their citizenship even if they take up the citizenship of another country.

In my view, and that’s the view of many others, South Africa is being punished through a malicious public relations campaign for not kowtowing to the whims of Washington’s foreign policy dictates. The membership of BRICS is also not helpful for South Africa. The Trump administration regards BRICS as an aberration.

Additionally, South Africa’s claim of non-alignment of foreign policy is also viewed by Washington and the West as a load of baloney. Lastly, tackling the untouchable Israel and hauling Tell Aviv before the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide against the Palestinians was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

These are unstated truths at the centre of the deteriorating bilateral relations between Pretoria and Washington. Being the weaker economy and refusing to be bullied in internal affairs, we can expect that the plot against our nation will continue to thicken. The first batch of Afrikaner refugees is only a ploy and pawn in the greater scheme of things. By all accounts, more Afrikaners will leave soon on a ticket of blatant lies about being persecuted.

Let’s connect the dots here. The US is boycotting our presidency of the G20. Mark my words: It will be a miracle if the US does not kick SA out of AGOA in a jiffy. Our sin is one - We are too independent for a “small” country. But then again, they forget that we are Mandela’s and Tutu’s rainbow nation, replete with imperfections but morally upright.

*Abbey Makoe is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network (gsmn.co.za). The views are personal.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, Independent Media, or IOL.