On the eve of the 30th anniversary of democracy, a group of Afrikaner organisations and individuals has called for a formal engagement with the government — in a “cultural accord” — to address issues of concern to Afrikaners.
The Afrikaner Leadership Network, including groups such as Solidarity, the Afrikanerbond and AfriForum, said in a statement at the weekend it had been prompted to speak out by “the serious crisis the country and the Afrikaner community are facing”.
Decrying “accelerating state failure in the country”, the network was critical of the ANC’s engagement with the Afrikaner community since 1994. It accused the party of “violating important sections of the 1994 settlement, and the intention of Afrikaners across a wide spectrum to work together constructively to find solutions for our own community and for the country”.
Conceding that its “Joint Afrikaner Declaration” was not on behalf of all Afrikaners, it spoke for “the nearly 2-million people” represented by signatory organisations. The declaration was a culmination of regular meetings since 2021 to “reflect on Afrikaners’ future role and place in the country”.
“While for the past 30 years Afrikaners have campaigned through various organisations for the protection of Afrikaners’ rights and freedom, and contributed to the welfare of the country as a whole, one drawback was that there was no collective approach. We could not state our points of view with one voice against an increasingly distant and even hostile government,” it said in the statement.
As a consequence, “several organisations in our ranks began walking the path of getting things done themselves, and continuing to be self-sufficient and independent of the state and government because we had no other choice”.
“This pursuit of self-reliance included forms of self-determination, promoting Afrikaans, socioeconomic projects, cultural development, food security and physical safety.”
The statement highlighted the following aims:
- To ensure that South Africans took note of “the disposition and good faith” of Afrikaners;
- To urge “as many other Afrikaner organisations, networks, leaders and individuals as possible to sign the declaration”; and
- To “convince the government of the necessity to conclude a cultural accord with Afrikaners, for the sake of stability and for the benefit of the country and all its people”.
The formation’s declaration said Afrikaners supported a “republican ideal”, which meant a desire “to make and implement our own decisions about our community”. Afrikaners, it said, were a “a self-defined cultural community — a people — and not simply a language group or a racial grouping”. Without cultural freedom, Afrikaners would be “dominated by the demographic majority in every sphere our lives”.
Despite differences that may exist among South Africans, the network believed they shared “core interests such as a functioning country and a healthy society in which everyone has the opportunity to build a better future”.
The group was critical of post-1994 corrective action. “We endorse measures to promote equal opportunities for all, but we reject the perpetuation of racial laws that reduce Afrikaners to second-class citizens, leading to unequal citizenship.
“In many instances,” it said, “the manipulation of these racial measures has also led to the weakening of the public sector and public enterprises [even] promoting corruption”. It added that “the abolition of these measures will help release the brakes that stymie economic growth”.
“Our children cannot be blamed for what had happened before they were born, while government leaders are not being held accountable for what they are doing today,” the network said, while pledging co-operation with other South Africans to find solutions.
The network, whose members have previously engaged with the Thabo Mbeki Foundation and the ANC’s Veterans’ League, added that “cultural freedom without territory is without substance”, and called for “a political solution to address this”, suggesting the possible establishment of “special cultural zones with a geographic base”.
“In view of our position as a permanent minority, Afrikaners are excluded from and without access to government. No channels to engage with government are available to us other than through the courts, the media and public confrontation,” the declaration said.
We are very worried that South Africans are losing out, not just Afrikaners. We think there is hope in the Afrikaner community. That said, there is frustration. The same frustration that other South Africans have about water and sewerage and governance
— Theuns Eloff
This is the first time since 1994 that Afrikaner groups have banded together to make a public statement directly critical of the ANC government. The group is facilitated by Theuns Eloff, the former vice-chancellor of North-West University. He is also chair of Astral Foods and the Dagbreek Trust, which promotes Afrikaans and Afrikaner culture. He was part of a predominantly Afrikaner group that met the then-banned ANC in Dakar in 1987.
Speaking to the Sunday Times on the sidelines of the group’s media briefing, Eloff said the declaration’s reference to Afrikaner territory was not about secession, or a volkstaat, along the lines of Orania. He and many other Afrikaners would not want to live in Orania. Instead, Afrikaners wanted “cultural zones where there is a density of Afrikaners”.
He said what the network wanted was ongoing access and engagement with the government, even between elections. “If government wants to talk to the Jewish community, they talk to the Jewish Board of Deputies, for example. We don’t have that.”
Solidarity’s Flip Buys said Afrikaners wanted to help address the country’s crises and create conditions under which they would want to stay in South Africa. However, in some cases agreements reached with local governments were never implemented, in others they were not allowed to help to solve water problems, with facilities being sabotaged. While the May elections were important, the problems in the country would not disappear “the following day”.
Recently, Deputy President Paul Mashatile confirmed the government’s intention to engage Solidarity, AfriForum and farmers to help find a solution to country’s worsening water crisis.
While believing that South African governance was too centralised, they did not believe in the Cape independence “nonsense”, Eloff said. Pointing to Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s push for provincial control of policing, Buys called for the devolution of more powers to provinces.
Eloff said the Afrikaner community was committed to making a difference to the country. “We are very worried that South Africans are losing out, not just Afrikaners. We think there is hope in the Afrikaner community. That said, there is frustration. The same frustration that other South Africans have about water and sewerage and governance.
“But we are not going anywhere.”
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