Not all Afrikaners back AfriForum’s US appeal

While AfriForum and Solidarity make valid points about crime, expropriation without compensation and language rights, their plea to US President Donald Trump for special treatment for Afrikaners indicates they have not come to terms with living under a black government.

Much of their rhetoric was around a special place for them – although the lobbyists didn’t go so far as saying they wanted a physical homeland.

Yet, many of their arguments about culture echoed those of the then National Party when constructing its black homelands – the “Constellation of Casinos” as some called it.

Here’s something to ponder: how can an immigrant community (because that is what they are – not indigenous to Africa) want a homeland?

In words that Trump might understand, it would be akin to the Italians demanding Manhattan… Logic would indicate that Europe is the homeland of white Afrikaners.

Charging Ernst Roets, Kallie Kriel and company with treason, though, is not the way to deal with people who hanker after the past and believe their future is a “Volkstaat.”

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In pursuing such charges, the Hawks merely reinforce the narrative of Afrikaners as victims.

There is, however, a glimmer of hope amid the clouds of destruction done to race relations by the latest foreign mission.

And that is a group called the “Betereinders” (Better outcomes) who say, loudly and clearly, AfriForum and Solidarity do not speak for all Afrikaners.

Betereinders cofounder Johan Erasmus says the group’s “Not USA but You SA” campaign aims to bring people together.

He says: “We don’t think South Africa’s problems are solved in the White House or a white house – they’re solved when the whites leave their white houses and go to black houses and have a dialogue.”

We couldn’t have said it better.

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