Afrikaners who accepted Trump’s refugee offer ‘know there’s no persecution in SA’ – expert

A Wits University professor said Afrikaners who have accepted US President Donald Trump’s resettlement programme are aware that there’s no persecution of white people in the country, but are taking advantage of the opportunity to go to America.

At least 40 Afrikaners granted refugee status by Trump departed OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Sunday on a private charter flight for the United States.

The group of 49, including young children, appeared to be in a jovial mood, while others were reserved as they waited for their turn to check in their baggage. The Afrikaners did not want to answer questions from the media.

Causing an ‘issue’

Wits University’s Professor Loren Landau says the white Afrikaners leaving their home country to be refugees in the US will cause an “issue between South Africa and the US.

“South Africa and the United States have many conversations to be had, around trade, tourism, and other kinds of things. The G20 that’s coming up later this year will be an issue. This will make it more difficult to negotiate in good faith,” Landau told Newzroom Afrika on Sunday

“But this is part of Donald Trump’s game plan of putting his opponents, which is the rest of the world, on the back foot, and I think South Africa shouldn’t take the bait. South Africa knows what it’s doing. It has its issues, of course, but it needs to come into these negotiations strong. We do need the assistance from PEPFAR, from other programs, for our HIV programs, but South Africa needs to negotiate, not from a position of weakness.”

WATCH Professor Loren Landau speaking about Afrikaners leaving SA

ALSO READ: Resettlement of Afrikaners in US as refugees ‘entirely politically motivated’ Dirco says

Fleeing SA ‘absurd’

Landau said there are people who think fleeing South Africa is “absurd”.

“I think what people think about this is that it’s absurd. People in South Africa think it’s ridiculous, and even many of the Afrikaners we’ve heard in interviews, they know they’re not being persecuted, but they accept that this is an opportunity to go to the US, to have their children educated there, etc, and they’re grabbing that opportunity.

“There are those white South Africans, of course, who believe that they’re being persecuted, and they’re entitled to that belief, however fictitious it might be, but this is not a war that in this day and age we can win. Misinformation is the norm,” Landau said.

In February, Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie said he and AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel agreed that there is no white genocide in South Africa.

‘Mission SA’

On Friday, the International Relations Department (Dirco) said the resettlement of white South Africans or Afrikaners in the United States under the guise of being “refugees” was “entirely politically motivated”.

ALSO READ: First SA white Afrikaner refugees set to arrive in US next week

Trump set up a programme in March called “Mission South Africa” offering an expedited pathway to US citizenship for white South Africans, falsely claiming that the government was confiscating their land and calling their treatment in the country “terrible”.

‘Politically motivated’

Dirco spokesperson Chrispin Phiri reiterated that allegations of discrimination against Afrikaners were “unfounded”.

“It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being ‘refugees’ is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy,” Phiri said.

“A country which has, in fact, suffered true persecution under apartheid rule and has worked tirelessly to prevent such levels of discrimination from ever occurring again, including through the entrenchment of rights in our Constitution, which is enforced vigorously through our judicial system.

“In addition, it is not clear how the principle of non-refoulement will be applied in relation to these citizens once they are resettled.”

Phiri said South Africa would not block white South Africans or Afrikaners who wanted to leave the country.

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