The ANC has welcomed and salutes the “courageous stance” taken by the Afrikaans speaking South Africans.
The ANC says freedom-loving South Africans recognise that the “unity being forged” in the country is essential to building a “non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and prosperous South Africa.”
The party was responding to Afrikaans-speaking South Africans who authored and co-signed an article, “Not in our Name: Afrikaners Respond to the Misuse of Their Story in US Politics published on Saturday.
‘Rejecting the narrative’
In their response, the Afrikaners said they “reject the US narrative that casts Afrikaners as victims of racial persecution in post-apartheid South Africa.”
“This framing, now being used to support the far-right “Great Replacement” theory in the United States, is not only misleading, but also dangerous. It distorts the realities of South Africa, weaponises our history, and reduces a complex social context and necessary levelling of playing fields into a simplistic symbol of white decline.”
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SA’s challenges
However, the Afrikaners acknowledged that South Africa faces serious challenges – “crime, inequality, and the enduring legacy of apartheid.”
“But these issues affect South Africans of all races. To cherry-pick white suffering and elevate it above others is dishonest and harmful. It feeds extremist ideologies that perpetuate division and have inspired real-world violence, including mass shootings.
Diversity
The letter, signed by nearly 50 academics, church leaders, and other professionals, said they are “not pawns in America’s culture wars.”
“We are South Africans, part of a diverse, evolving nation still grappling with its past and striving toward a more just future,” they said.
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‘Courageous stance’
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the party “welcomes and salutes the courageous stance” taken by the Afrikaans-speaking South Africans who authored and co-signed the article.
“They affirm that nation-building requires honesty about our painful past and a shared commitment to redress the deep inequalities caused by centuries of oppression. The ANC notes with appreciation their clear rejection of attempts to distort South Africa’s history and weaponise it to advance far-right agendas abroad.
“We commend these South Africans for asserting that they are not pawns in the culture wars of other nations but citizens of a free South Africa, one that continues to grapple with its past while striving for a better future for all who live in it,” Behngu said.
‘True patriotism’
Bhengu added that the Afrikaners’ statement affirms that “true patriotism lies in facing the truth and building bridges of understanding, not denying the lived unequal realities of our people.”
This is the spirit of reconciliation that our founding leaders envisioned when they declared that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.”
The ANC has called on all South Africans, including those from communities once privileged by apartheid, to join hands in “completing the unfinished business of liberation.”
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