CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Groups representing some of South Africa’s white minority responded Saturday to a plan by President Donald Trump to offer them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, but no thanks.
The plan was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and financial assistance to South Africa as punishment for what the Trump administration said were “rights violations” by the government against some of its white citizens.
The Trump administration accused the South African government of allowing violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that enables it to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”
The South African government has denied there are any concerted attacks on white farmers and has said that Trump’s description of the new land law is full of misinformation and distortions.
Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch, but also French and German colonial settlers who first arrived in South Africa more than 300 years ago. They speak Afrikaans, a language derived from Dutch that developed in South Africa, and are distinct from other white South Africans who come from British or other backgrounds.
Together, whites make up around 7% of South Africa’s population of 62 million.
‘We are not going anywhere’
On Saturday, two of the most prominent groups representing Afrikaners said they would not be taking up Trump’s offer of resettlement in the U.S.
“Our members work here, and want to stay here, and they are going to stay here,” said Dirk Hermann, chief executive of the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity, which says it represents around 2 million people. “We are committed to build a future here. We are not going anywhere.”
At the same press conference, Kallie Kriel, the CEO of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, said: “We have to state categorically: We don’t want to move elsewhere.”
Trump’s move to sanction South Africa, a key U.S. trading partner in Africa, came after he and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk have accused its Black leadership of having an anti-white stance. But the portrayal of Afrikaners as a downtrodden group that needed to be saved would surprise most South Africans.
“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged,” South Africa’s Foreign Ministry said. It also criticized the Trump administration’s own policies, saying the focus on Afrikaners came “while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.”
There was “a campaign of misinformation and propaganda” aimed at South Africa, the ministry said.
Racism is cool because it let’s you be racist. /s
US Here, poked my head over in conservative circles, they’re cheering for this.
These are the same people who want to “close the borders” to everyone, mad at immigration, “America First.” Idiots…
It’s always been a conservative pet project to get back at the south africans that took down apartheid. I remember all the white victim propaganda they pushed when I was a kid. A lot of conservatives have been raised on the lie that south africa is basically a mad max movie with concentration camps of white people.
The current opposition leader of the Australian Liberal (conservative) party made a big deal about bringing in South African (white) farmers when he was in the Home Affairs office of a previous government.
White South African dog-whistling seems to be a shared tactic internationally amongst conservatives, much like moving their embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
It’s because they are white…
It would be nice American racists who feel “oppressed” would resettle in another country.
Many racists relocated to Russia because of “traditional values”. Turns out they don’t like that Russia’s standard of living is pretty low.
There are plenty of reasons why Russia is experiencing population decline even before the war in Ukraine, while many poor migrants are dragging, crawling and swimming to get to the West. The West is not perfect, but migrants prefer both prosperity and strong rule of law.
🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷
They love using that flag. Send them to Liberia since they stan for it so much
https://signup.internationalliving.com/X1204112
The people who don’t want immigrants coming in to the US have no problem leaving the US for ex-pat living.
We’ve been saying that for over 400 years
“We aren’t leaving” say the white groups that went touring “white genocide” across the USA a few years back. Fuck those actual racist shitheads. As a south African I would happily have them leave. Actually, if they want to feel persecuted, I will volunteer to persecute them. I am white, so I can offer a “superior” persecution.
Ah yes, another “please, America! Take away our healthcare!” situation that Trump envisions, much like Greenland.
I think he’s just talking about Elon.
Don’t come here the enshitification of America is in full swing.
