Minorities of whites in South Africa have formally rejected an effort by the United States President Donald Trump to offer Afrikaners refugee status to resettle in the United States. Briefly, the response went, “Thanks but no thanks.” This came after an executive order by Trump signed on Friday calling for resettlement of Afrikaners to the U.S., and also called for halting all aid to South Africa amid purported human rights abuses against white nationals.
The government of South Africa has denied anything like coordinated attacks taking place against white farmers, describing Trump’s portrayal of the country’s new land laws as “full of distortions.”
During a news conference held on Sunday, Dirk Hermann, the chief executive of the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity, made sure to underscore the fact that its estimated two million members have no plans to desert South Africa. “Our members work here and want to stay here, and they are going to stay here. We are committed to building a future here,” Hermann declared.
We have to say unequivocally: We will not be moved anywhere else,” said Kallie Kriel, chief executive of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum. The president’s sanctions against South Africa have been a point of contention, amid claims by Trump and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk that the country’s leadership was anti-white.
In response to Trump’s moves, South Africa’s foreign ministry noted that Afrikaners are still an “economically privileged” section of society. The ministry underlined the irony of granting refugee status to a group that still enjoys massive economic privileges.
Whites, even though they form the minority group in South Africa, own close to 70 percent of its private farmland. A study by the Human Rights Commission done in 2021 showed staggering disparities: while 1 percent of whites were living in poverty, 64 percent of blacks were.
