Sorry farce of Afrikaner ‘refugees’ fleeing ‘white genocide’

The worst victims of the ANC are not white Afrikaners, even if they are a vulnerable group. The worst victims are poor black people, the majority of South Africans, who have been deliberately impoverished by the super-wealthy ANC elite. These blacks live in stinking squalor with 42 percent unemployment, with water and sanitation failing, terrorized by violent crime and stricken by malnutrition.

If any South Africans should be welcomed into the USA as refugees, it is they. So it was a sorry farce when 49 Afrikaner “refugees” were greeted as heroes by senior US officials at Dulles Airport in Washington.

Trump is talking nonsense about “white genocide” in South Africa. No doubt Elon Musk, who was brought up in South Africa and should know better, was behind Trump’s foolish outbursts. I thought Trump was a pretty good president in his first term and would have voted for him last year; I am dismayed at some of his behavior now. I thought, and still think, Musk was an industrial genius with astonishing achievements, but as a politician, dear, oh dear! I grate my teeth because this white “refugee” rubbish gives such ammunition to the ANC and its white woke fellow travelers.

President Ramaphosa, perhaps the most disastrous president of our democratic era, stood up this week at the Africa CEO Forum in the Ivory Coast and said that the Afrikaners in question did not fit the definition of a refugee. This is true. But using the same calm, personable tones, on 26 September 2018, Ramaphosa told Bloomberg media. “There are no killings of farmers or white farmers in South Africa.” This was an outright lie. At the time the South African police had recorded over 1,700 farm murders in South Africa – including of infants, very old people, black farmers and farmworkers. Some of these murders were of the most gruesome type, preceded by long and terrible torture. I’m afraid that many commentators in the West, hearing Ramaphosa’s true statement about the “refugees,” might conclude that he was also telling the truth about farm murders.

I haven’t been able to find out much about the 49 Afrikaners. I don’t know how many, if any, owned farms. They have made vague statements about feeling threatened, but then everyone in South Africa feels threatened, except the ANC leaders, who live in mansions behind massive, very expensive security and travel in state cars with bullet-proof windows and armed bodyguards. My guess is that they are mainly just chancers, looking for a better life in the US. Who can blame them? Judging by the callers-in to radio programs, millions of black South Africans, seeking to escape the ravages of the ANC, would love to go to the US as refugees.

The relationship between white Afrikaners and black Africans is a complicated and paradoxical one but it needs to be understood to understand South Africa. I was brought up under the Afrikaner government of apartheid and have lived the last 31 years under the African government of the ANC. The incoming National Party government of 1948 vowed to promote the Afrikaner nation, its culture and its language, and to care for all the Afrikaner people. It subjected the black majority to the brutal rule of apartheid but it kept its promise to its own people. It opened schools and universities in Afrikaans and sent its own children to them. It looked after poor Afrikaners. The incoming ANC government in 1994 did nothing of the kind.

The ANC leaders treated the black masses with contempt, making no real effort to uplift them. Most African leaders seemed embarrassed, if not ashamed, of African culture and languages. They were forever prattling against “colonialism” while in practice embracing just about everything Cecil John Rhodes had wished upon them, especially the English language. They opened no new schools or universities teaching in African languages. They wanted their own children to be taught in English – and by white teachers!

One of the many ANC racial laws is the Employment Equity Act, which states that the proportions of races at every level of employment should match those in the country. Since “blacks” (a vague term) are 93 percent of the population, in most schools 93 percent of the teachers are black. Furthermore, most of their teachers have been appointed on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), in other words on race rather than merit. The ANC says employment equity and DEI are to “redress the injustices of the past”. And guess what? I don’t know of a single black leader who sends his or her children to one of these schools. They all send them to posh schools with mainly white teachers appointed on merit. Some are Afrikaans schools.

This is a problem for the ANC and explains much of their antipathy to Afrikaners. The Afrikaners, proud of their culture and language, show up the African leaders. The ANC knows that Afrikaans teachers are dedicated and competent, and so send their children to Afrikaans schools – and then demand they be taught in English. The ANC has recently passed the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act. Its intention is to take power away from school governing boards and parents and give it to ANC politicians, and to stamp out Afrikaans at schools. So while there is no genocide against Afrikaners, there are increasing attacks on them in one form or another.

Most Afrikaners want nothing to do with the 49 “refugees”. Their nation was born in South Africa. They have no other home. They want to stay and serve their country. But they would like to be treated fairly and decently, and to feel secure. Trump is not helping them at all.