A group of 59 White South Africans arrived in the United States last week after being granted refugee status by the White House, which has fast-tracked the processing of Afrikaner refugees but paused refugee applications for other nationalities. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump in Washington, seeking a reset in relations with the United States. Ties between both nations have been fraught since Trump froze aid to South Africa in February over claims it was mistreating its minority White population. <\/p>\n
The South African government said \u201creframing bilateral, economic and commercial relations\u201d was the specific focus of Ramaphosa\u2019s US visit. Ramaphosa said that the White South Africans arriving in the US \u201cdo not fit the bill\u201d for having refugee status as someone who is leaving their country out of fear of persecution. <\/p>\n
But as thousands more Afrikaners hope for admission to the US, others insist they have no need of refugee status but want America\u2019s help instead to tackle a wave of violent crime in South Africa, or even to establish an autonomous state within a state. <\/p>\n
Joost Strydom leads the group of White South Africans who have dismissed the US\u2019 offer of asylum, and heads Orania, a separatist \u201cAfrikaner-only\u201d settlement in the country\u2019s Northern Cape. <\/p>\n
\u201cHelp us here,\u201d he said his message was to Trump, whom he hopes will recognize Orania\u2019s quest for self-determination. <\/p>\n
Home to some 3,000 Afrikaners, the 8,000-hectare (19,800-acre) Orania town is partially self-governing. The exclusively White enclave produces half of its own electricity needs, takes local taxes, and prints its own currency that\u2019s pegged to the South African rand. But the settlement\u2019s residents want more: its recognition as an independent state. <\/p>\n
Strydom was part of Orania\u2019s delegation to the US in late March to push for this goal. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe met with government officials,\u201d he said. \u201cThe conversation is ongoing, and it is something that we\u2019ve decided to keep a low profile on.\u201d <\/p>\n
Orania is backed by a 1994 post-apartheid accord that allowed for Afrikaner self-determination, including the concept of an Afrikaner state, referred to as Volkstaat. <\/p>\n
Strydom anticipates that the settlement could develop into a \u201cnational home for the Afrikaner people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Afrikaners are the descendants of predominantly Dutch settlers in South Africa, with White South Africans making up roughly 7% of the country\u2019s population as of 2022 \u2013 a share that had declined from 11% in 1996, census data shows. A discriminatory apartheid government led by Afrikaners lost power in the mid-1990s, replaced by a multi-party democracy dominated by the African National Congress. <\/p>\n
At least 67,000 South Africans have shown interest in seeking refugee status in the US, according to the South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA (SACCUSA). <\/p>\n
In comments justifying his decision to resettle Afrikaners in the US, Trump cited claims that \u201ca genocide is taking place\u201d in South Africa, adding that \u201cWhite farmers are being brutally killed and their land confiscated.\u201d <\/p>\n
South African authorities have strongly denied such claims. In a statement in February, the South African Police Service said \u201conly one farmer, who happens to be white,\u201d had been killed between October 1 and December 31, and urged the public \u201cto desist from assumptions that belong to the past, where farm murders are the same as murders of white farmers.\u201d <\/p>\n
Police minister Senzo Mchunu stressed in a recent statement that there was no evidence of a \u201cWhite genocide\u201d in the country. <\/p>\n
The police crime figure for the last quarter of 2024 had been disputed by an Afrikaner advocacy group, AfriForum, which argued that five farm owners were murdered during those months and that police had underreported the actual figures. <\/p>\n
Most of the attacks happened in Gauteng province, the group stated. Gauteng is home to the largest concentration of South Africa\u2019s White population, according to the country\u2019s last census in 2022, with about 1.5 million Whites living there. <\/p>\n
Afrikaner farmer Adriaan Vos is a recent victim of Gauteng\u2019s farm attacks. The 55-year-old said he was left fighting for his life just two months ago after being shot on his farm in Glenharvie, a township in Westonaria, West of Gauteng. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was shot twice in the knee and once at my back,\u201d Vos said about the attack on his farm in the early hours of March 16. <\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily, that bullet stuck next to my lung,\u201d he said, adding that his farmhouse was pillaged and set on fire the same night. <\/p>\n
Vos could not identify his attackers and is unsure whether the attack was racially motivated. But the raid appears to be part of a pattern of farm attacks that has persisted for years in South Africa, a country grappling with one of the world\u2019s highest murder rates. South African authorities rarely publish crime figures by race but local media report that most murder victims are Black. <\/p>\n
South African leader Ramaphosa does not believe that Afrikaners are being persecuted \u2013 as claimed by Trump and his ally Elon Musk, who was born and raised in the country \u2013 and has described those fleeing to the US as \u201ccowards\u201d who are opposed to his government\u2019s efforts to undo the legacy of apartheid, especially inequality. <\/p>\n
One of those efforts was the controversial enactment in January of an Expropriation Act, which empowers South Africa\u2019s government to take land and redistribute it \u2013 with no obligation to pay compensation in some instances \u2013 if the seizure is found to be \u201cjust and equitable and in the public interest.\u201d <\/p>\n
Under apartheid, Black South Africans were forcibly dispossessed of their lands for the benefit of Whites. Today, some three decades after racial segregation officially ended in the country, Blacks, who comprise over 80% of the country\u2019s population of 63 million, own around 4% of private land while 72% is held by Whites. <\/p>\n
For some Afrikaners in Orania, there is more to lose than gain if they choose to be refugees in the US. <\/p>\n
Built from scratch on arid land described by Strydom as \u201can abandoned ghost town\u201d with extreme weather, Orania has witnessed infrastructural growth and is the most realistic place to preserve Afrikaner culture and heritage, according to Cara Tomlinson who coordinates an Afrikaner cultural association. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we travel outside Orania in South Africa, it is very common to be looked at with hate,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Both Roets and Tomlinson desire Trump\u2019s recognition for Orania, but the legitimacy of the separatist town has been questioned by other South Africans, including members of the radical left-wing party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) who say that its \u201cAfrikaner-only\u201d policy \u201cinstitutionalizes exclusion.\u201d <\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s foreign ministry said Orania had no status as a nation within a nation and remained bound by South African laws. <\/p>\n
Beyond Orania, other Afrikaners, such as Vos, who\u2019s still nursing his injuries, do not plan to leave despite the pressures felt by farmers. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m lucky to be alive,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cI must look after this place (his farmland), whatever is left. We were born and bred here. South Africa is all we know.\u201d <\/p>\n
But help must come fast, Vos warned, as he outlined what he hoped Ramaphosa will tell his US opposite number during his visit to the White House. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need help in South Africa because you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re going to wake up tomorrow. It\u2019s a mess here,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, he (Ramaphosa) can be open about everything (with Trump) \u2026 and say, \u2018I\u2019m going to fix it, and I\u2019m going to look after the farmers and the people that are putting food in my mouth.\u2019 He must come and do it, implement it, and let\u2019s start over again.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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