‘We belong in Africa’: Orania rejects Donald Trump’s offer, insists on staying in South Africa

The Orania Movement has welcomed United States President Donald Trump's empathy towards Afrikaners, after the leader of the US extended an opportunity for the South African citizens to take up residence in the US as refugees.

Last week, IOL reported that 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 is not at risk.

In a late-night Executive Order on Friday, 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.

Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, Orania Movement head Joost Strydom said his community does not need handouts but is seeking greater recognition.

“We are not necessarily interested in tax dollars, handouts and help. What we want, we already got to an extent. We want recognition. We want recognition from abroad, we want recognition locally and we want recognition from our peers. That is to say, firstly those people are people upon themselves and they have the right to make certain decisions for themselves. That is what we want

“We don’t want people’s money, we don’t want people’s handouts. We as Orania want larger, greater recognition. And I think that is not too much to ask. I think that is very reasonable.”   

Strydom highlighted that Afrikaners belong to Africa and have no desire to move to another continent.

“What Orania is saying is that they come from a long line of Afrikaners, people who are only at home in Africa. We cannot go back to Europe. We cannot belong in Europe. We belong in Africa so if people recognise us as part of theirs, as part of the continent, as part of this country in terms of our history – a long history, more than 400 years,” he said.

“We want to build a future for ourselves here, and that is the crux of the matter.”

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.

“The United States cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country or its ‘undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests,” read the Executive Order.

Diplomatic and political tension between the US and South Africa escalated in recent days after Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying South Africa was “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY” and threatened to cut off all future funding to the country until a full investigation of this situation has been completed.

During his first term as US President, Trump in 2018 ordered then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to look into land seizures from and killings of white farmers in South Africa.

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

IOL