Thousands of Afrikaners rally outside the US Embassy in Pretoria, voicing their support for Donald Trump .
Image: Marco Longari / AFP
Thousands of South African Afrikaners gathered outside the US Embassy in Pretoria on Saturday, to show their support for US President Donald Trump.
The people gathered outside the embassy were seen with posters that said "Mr Donald Trump Thank You Very Much' and "Make South Africa Great Again" and "Recognise the White Nation like Israel was recognised".
Willem Petzer, who according to his Facebook page is an Afrikaner commentator, posted a video on social media where he said that more than 3,000 people were at the rally.
In a YouTube video, Petzer said that people were there to show their support for Trump's actions that he had taken against the SA government due to the Expropriation Act.
Petzer said that a memorandum which was signed 138,000 people was also handed to the US Embassy.
A YouTube description of the video said: "...memorandum to the United States Embassy in which we compiled all the evidence of farm murders against South Africans, as well as all racial laws against white South Africans, and also a chapter on the ideological history of the South African Communist Party-ANC government of South Africa".
The rally comes two weeks after Trump made good on his promise to cut funding to South Africa over the government’s land expropriation policy and to resettle white farmers whose land he claims will be be expropriated without compensation.
The Act is clear that only barren and un-used land is at risk of being expropriated, while productive land was not at risk.
In a late-night Executive Order on February 7, Trump accused South Africa’s government of “egregious actions” without providing any evidence, saying the recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 (Act) would seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.
Trump has accused South Africa of having taken aggressive positions towards the US and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide against Palestinians in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.
Speaking to AFP on Saturday, Walter Wobben, a 52-year-old owner farmer in the Western Cape province when referring to the descendants of Dutch settlers said: "It's the first time we've seen in my lifetime that a foreign president stands up for the Afrikaner people like what we've seen him do, so we have to support this.
Wobben was also handing out "Make Afrikaners Great Again" caps to the all-white crowd, according to AFP.
"There are so many other things happening in South Africa, but nobody gives specific attention to farm killings," Rose Basson said to AFP.
A South African who was in attendance at the rally posted on Twitter: "We are Afrikaners and will stand together against the ANC."
In a different post the user said: "We are the Afrikaners saying to President Trump we are all the way with you sir today in Pretoria at the USA Embassy."
In February, Trump signed an executive order to “prioritise humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination”.
The order accused the SA government of passing countless policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and “hateful rhetoric and government actions fuelling disproportionate violence against racially disfavoured landowners”.
Meanwhile, AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement backtracked on the white genocide claims, publicly turning down Trump's refuge offer.
In a joint media briefing on February 8, the Afrikaner interest and civil society group AfriForum, and the trade union Solidarity, were unequivocal, saying white Afrikaners were going nowhere and the Afrikaners’ future lies in Africa, specifically in South Africa.
“We have not, or will not call for sanctions against South Africa or that funds for vulnerable people be cut off by the US government,” Solidarity Movement's chairman, Flip Buys said.
“The order of Trump is as a result of the reckless policies of the ANC leadership that alienated the superpowers and not the so-called disinformation campaign from our side.”
In an IOL report, Visa Immigration SA managing director Ross Viljoen warned Afrikaners not to leap at Trump’s offer to move to America on refugee status as life might be more tough in a country where citizens have demonstrated hostility towards foreigners.
Afrikaners have been angered by the Land Expropriation Act as well as the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act who have alleged that these would strip them of their farming land and destroy the school system and language, and deprive them of employment opportunities.
According to Viljoen, it is possible that Afrikaners would be subjected to the same treatment suffered by minorities living in the US.
“For the white Afrikaners it is not going to be a very good to move there looking for greener pastures,” he said.
He said after Trump was elected president replacing Joe Biden, he saw “a lot of USA nationals looking to come to South Africa”.
“We had a serious spike of USA nationals wanting to come to South Africa, which says something,” he said.
Viljoen said that Afrikaners who are tempted to take Trump’s offer might end up not emigrating because this might not benefit them.
Trump had not indicated how exactly Afrikaners would benefit by moving America, according to Viljoen.
IOL
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