When 40-odd white Afrikaans speakers, including me, were asked to put their names on a list rejecting the “Afrikaner genocide” narrative being used by the Trump regime to further its racist Great Replacement agenda, the reaction was predictable.
The Afrikaans mainstream and social media went into overdrive. A faux scandal about the letter’s provenance was produced, and the big guns fired resounding salvoes, with former KykNet news chief Tim du Plessis asking what we were trying to achieve.
What a strange, lame question as the West grapples with the rise of a wannabe tyrant whose actions have already caused deadly chaos around the world, with the Afrikaner genocide narrative shaping up as a key plank in his anti-immigration platform.
This, amid deathly silence from Afrikaner organisations. Solidarity head honcho Flip Buys accused us of being silent about ANC failures. Yet he knows full well that most of the signatories have been, and still are, vociferous critics of the government.
And then along came the ANC, playing to type too. The media statement by spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri was considered and eloquent — except for one glaring element that turned it into a ham-fisted attempt to co-opt us. She tried to make us pawns of political projects, which was precisely what we were protesting against with regard to Donald Trump’s politics.
She spoke of the unity required to carry through the project of transformation, and called us patriots. But what is there to be patriotic about in a country where crime and corruption run rampant? Where its symbols of pride — its parliament, top hospital, top traditional university, top struggle university and top municipal headquarters — get burnt down?
As for “unity”, her reference to that backbencher’s pea shooter is meant to gather us under the same umbrella President Cyril Ramaphosa has opened over the DA in the government of national unity. Unity gives him custodianship over us all, allowing the ANC to carry on with business as usual, to which I say: you are not my leader, sir.
That also seems to have been the intention behind the post on X by Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Ngwenya: “Our compatriots have spoken; the rest is just noise.” I am not sure he realises how that rankles with Afrikaans speakers, and perhaps whites in general, who are grappling with the continued legitimacy of corrupt ANC efforts at redress for apartheid and colonialism. Or perhaps he does.
Among just about all minorities — not only Afrikaans speakers — the unity that would allow Ngwenya and Bhengu-Motsiri to speak truthfully about “compatriots” just doesn’t exist anymore. Recent research among Gauteng’s coloured population shows that a significant percentage feel rejected as citizens, and 30% believe SA is a failed state. Most members of minorities rather identify as part of greater global spheres — Indian, European, Anglo-American, Lusophone, Christian, Islamic.
That we took a stand against the likes of the Solidarity movement’s embrace of a convicted rapist and likely paedophile as their messiah, and the Project 2025 fantasies of a Christian National paradise that he spearheads, doesn’t mean we believe there is no reason for Solidarity’s existence or that it merely arose out of residual racism from apartheid.
On the contrary, most of us are on record for our appreciation of the work the movement does as part of its civic duty. In fact, it should be seen as a triumph of the constitution, which allows people who didn’t vote for it, probably reject much of its transformative mandate and would like it scrapped or changed, to still go out of their way to make the country work.
Solidarity’s public-face leaders are mostly a nasty lot, but what the ANC and the commentariat should ask themselves is: why do so many sane, middle-of-the-road South Africans — not only Afrikaans speakers — support it with what is essentially a second tax? The answer is not hard and is not “just noise”. Solidarity’s rise and success are to be laid squarely at the feet of the ANC and its degeneracy.
Trauma due to farm murders
There is no Afrikaner genocide, and exploiting such myths are the workings of the sick minds of Trump and his sycophants, and those few cynical aspirant saviours in the Solidarity circles who actually believe it. But it is equally true that farm murders, and especially the reaction by some politicians and much of the commentariat, have been deeply traumatic for Afrikaners.
Afrikaners — specifically white Afrikaans speakers — are disproportionately affected by the trauma of murder and torture on farms. Not only do most have someone close to them living on a farm somewhere, but such murders are the only ones where the trauma is deepened by the singing of a song calling for just that. Yes, just as many gogos get their throats slit in squatter camps, but nobody is going around singing: “Kill the ouma, kill the granny.”
When farmers learn about yet another murder in the district they live in, they would naturally cast about for an assessment of their own safety, and try to read the political tea leaves. When they then hear the leader of a party with a following of millions calling for more murders, and listen in vain for leaders of the dominant party in the coalition government to distance themselves from such songs, they can react in two ways: they can read all the arguments that this is all innocent commemoration of the struggle and reassure the kids and farm workers that there’s nothing to worry about; that it’s just toyi-toyi jingles.
Or they can tell themselves that Julius Malema won’t even resolve not to kill farmers in the future. It’s on record in court. Let’s not take any chances. Let’s also not rely on the high fences in which we have encamped ourselves, lest the one or two psychopaths among those millions misunderstand Malema and actually go on a murder spree. They then set about organising defences for themselves, join the only organisation speaking for them and eventually allow themselves to succumb to the dubious charms of the mightiest man on earth.
The sting could long ago have been pulled from the right-wing backlash had Ramaphosa come out and stated that the singing of “Kill the Boer” was no longer necessary. Farmers, who were declared essential workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, experience it as a weapon of terror, and terrorism is not ANC policy.
Instead, the chickens have come home to roost. Trump is crazy enough to invade. In fact, here’s a call on Ramaphosa: Mr President, act against “Kill the Boer”. You might even discover it is the elusive key to Trump’s affections. You never know.
• Pienaar is an author and writing fellow of the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Study.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.