Prominent Khoisan activist Christian Martin has written a memorandum requesting engagement with the United States.
Image: Raahil Sain / Independent Media
South African representatives of the San and Khoi indigenous people are seeking an engagement with the United States administration led by President Donald Trump, amid the ongoing debacle around the expropriation of land in South Africa.
Last month, IOL reported that Trump insisted South Africa was "confiscating" land and "treating certain classes of people very badly" as he announced he was cutting off all future funding to the country pending an investigation.
IOL reported in February that Trump also offered to prioritise South African Afrikaners who take up refugee status in the US refugee programme, and the offer was met with thousands of enquiries.
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In the latest development, prominent activist for the recognition of the Khoi and San people in South Africa, Christian Martin has written to the Trump administration a memorandum titled: “Countering claims by Solidarity and AfriForum regarding land expropriation and requesting a meeting with President Donald Trump.”
Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Tuesday, Martin said the US cannot claim high moral ground on the issue of land.
“If you look at President Donald Trump and his indigenous people, and his country, the research that I have done over the years shows that the indigenous people of America are actually worse off than these people from Solidarity and AfriForum," he said.
“These two parties are coming together, on one side a cry victim Solidarity and AfriForum with what I call a school yard bully who is no better in treating his indigenous people when it comes to the American Indians or the American indigenous people," said Martin.
"If you do your research when it comes to the indigenous people of America, you will find out that when it comes to suicide, it is very high, obviously because of what they are going through. Poverty, substance abuse is high. All these things are happening there yet these two parties are coming together."
If the meeting with Trump happens, Martin said the Khoi and San would like to discuss the South African context on “who is actually supposed to cry victim in this country”.
He said the Khoi and San have so far endured more than 400 years of dispossession and marginalisation.
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A member of the Khoi-San community who only identifies himself as Vhillem (left) and Ruben Rustoff stand next to their belongings after they were removed from the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Image: Zelda Venter
IOL reported last month that lobby groups AfriForum and Solidarity have faced unprecedented backlash within South Africa, after Trump unleashed a raft of sanctions against South Africa, including cutting financial aid which benefitted millions of poor individuals.
Sections of South African society are of the view that intensive campaigns initiated by the lobby groups in the United States are responsible for Trump’s arbitrary sanctions, while other South Africans vociferously support the lobby groups’ campaigns.
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
IOL
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