Afriforum Struggles With White People Being Ordinary In Sa: Madonsela

Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela says civil society group AfriForum struggles with the reality of white people being ordinary in South Africa.

Madonsela, who is now Director of the Centre for Social Justice at Stellenbosch University, made the comment during an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Sunday 2 March.

AfriForum is struggling with the reality of being ordinary. The new South Africa requires all of us to be ordinary whereas colonialism and apartheid made white people special people, she said.

Ordinary white people during apartheid found solace in the fact that they were not black. Now that in the new South Africa they are ordinary, some white people, and AfriForum in particular, are seeking to reverse the will and find some reason to be special again.

AfriForum and Solidarity have been criticised for spreading misinformation about South Africa internationally, especially for their claims about discrimination against Afrikaners .

Their international campaign is thought to have influenced US President Donald Trump as far back as 2018 in his first term, when he posted on X about land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large-scale killing of farmers.

In February, Trump also signed an executive order cutting aid to South Africa and announcing a policy promoting the resettlement of Afrikaners as refugees in the US.

AfriForum, in its quest for justice for just us and justice for just themselves, is damaging brand South Africa unnecessarily because, based on their claims, the American president has withdrawn support to South Africans who were relying on aid, Madonsela said.

She added that non-governmental organisations NGOs were relying on this aid to support - and employ - both white and black people.

The latest crime statistics show that contrary to AfriForums claims of a large number of farm murders, 12 such crimes took place in the last quarter of 2024.