'we Are Not Going Anywhere:' Solidarity, Afriforum Snub Refugee Offer

South African civil society groups Solidarity and AfriForum have rejected US President Donald Trump s new policy of promoting the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.

Trump signed an executive order announcing the policy on Friday 7 February. He claimed that the recently signed Expropriation Act enables the government to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural property without compensation.

The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take appropriate steps, consistent with law, to prioritise humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination, Trump ordered.

However, at a media briefing on Saturday, AfriForum and Solidarity said they are committed to South Africa. Our members work here and want to say here. We are committed to build a future here. We are not going anywhere, Solidaritys managing director Dirk Hermann said.

The groups chairperson added, As in any community, there are individuals who wish to emigrate, but repatriation of Afrikaners as refugees is not a solution for us. We want to build a future in South Africa.

AfriForumCEO Kallie Kriel said Afrikaners will only be able to survive as a cultural community on local soil. He added, Emigration only offers an opportunity for Afrikaners who are willing to risk potentially sacrificing their descendants' cultural identity as Afrikaners. The price for that is simply too high.

In a statement on Saturday, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said Trumps orders premise lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa's profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid.

We are concerned by what seems to be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation. It is disappointing to observe that such narratives seem to have found favour among decision-makers in the United States of America, he added.

It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.