AfriForum’s best friend has impossibly steep climb to moral high ground

The men from AfriForum and Solidarity were caught on camera this week — with the imposing US Capitol, symbol of American power, looming in the background — smiling from ear to ear after a meeting with top aides in the US administration. They were as happy as clams, and obviously keen to relay the good tidings to people back home. The message particularly to the South African government was unmistakable: Don’t mess with us. We’ve got powerful friends.

AfriForum and their ilk have certainly achieved the near impossible. They’ve reached the zenith of their influence, putting to shame government diplomats who, despite a multimillion-rand budget, have put up a pitiable performance. A bit-part outfit, which nobody outside the country has heard of, has caught the ear of the most powerful man on Earth, and they’re not about to fritter away their good fortune. Their cause has, via Trump’s megaphone, been able to gain some international exposure, if not legitimacy. Great corporations and organisations would kill for this sort of access.

AfriForum’s Kallie Kriel said in a social media post that they were able during their visit to meet members of congress from both the Republican and Democratic parties. Of course, it would be expected for the Republicans to meet with them. They’ll take the cue from Donald Trump, their leader. But I’d like to know which Democrat would be comfortable supping with racists, let alone buying into their fiction about the oppression of Afrikaners in South Africa.

Instead of taking up his offer for the victims of this new apartheid to be settled in the US, they want him to pay for the construction of an Afrikaner settlement here at home. Kriel has mumbled something about Pretoria.

The meeting in Washington comes immediately after Trump last month signed an executive order canceling all aid to South Africa and offering the resettlement of Afrikaners refugees “escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination”. He ordered his secretaries of state and homeland security to prioritise humanitarian relief and admission for said refugees. This is a big deal. I can’t recall an American president inviting people, even those under threat from their governments, to settle in the US.

These actions, however, are premised on a lie. Trump accuses South Africa of, apart from human rights violations, “undermining US foreign policy which poses a threat to their interests, their allies, and their African partners”. This is utter bollocks. AfriForum hot-footing to Washington immediately after such an action against their country could be seen as an attempt to press home their advantage. They want to keep the foot on the pedal. They’ve decided their cause will be best served by hitching a ride on Trump’s reckless wagon. But the driver — erratic and capricious as always — may soon land them in a ditch. I guess they believe it will be good while it lasts.

But AfriForum seem not too keen on Trump’s generous offer, his package of goodies. They want to pick and choose. Instead of taking up his offer for the victims of this new apartheid to be settled in the US, they want him to pay for the construction of an Afrikaner settlement here at home. Kriel has mumbled something about Pretoria. I guess the money or the thinking is currently on the capital for such a settlement. It would seem instead of the foreign settlement that Trump is offering, they want to develop separately here at home — apartheid by the back door. Orania evidently is not enough compensation. But payment for such a scheme shouldn’t be a problem. Trump can simply take the money he’s snatched from the mouths of starving children and give it to them to build their Afrikaner settlement.

As their benevolent host was welcoming them this week, he was, among others, calling Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator, Vladimir Putin a great leader and putting on notice America’s European allies that he was about to impose hefty tariff charges against them. And who picks a fight with Canada? But his most offensive remark (there have been many) is that the US should take over Gaza, its 2.3-million people moved to Egypt and Jordan, and never allowed to return to their homeland. The US would then “own” the territory and develop it. He caused outrage this week when he shared without comment an AI-generated video showing war-ravaged Gaza transformed into a Middle Eastern paradise with exotic beaches, luxury yachts, with him, Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu reclining on the beach. This is not the action of a man who’s in full command of his faculties.

In what has been described as a textbook definition of corruption, Musk, who already owns billions in government contracts and who’s been given the thankless task of slashing the US bureaucracy, has elbowed Verizon out of a $2.4bn government contract to overhaul the air traffic control system.

The idea that we should be taking moral lessons from a tainted individual like Trump and his corrupt cabal is frankly utterly absurd and offensive. But in the end, it is the ANC that has got us into this sorry state. Their corruption, looting, incompetence and mismanagement of the infrastructure have all emboldened those who believe the past was better and that any attempts, misguided as some may seem, to level the playing field are maliciously discriminatory.

This country should never have been in the business of going cap in hand grovelling for a morsel from the likes of Trump. It has all the resources it needs to look after its people. But they’re being stolen by an elite that is uncaring to the point of being cruel. Unfortunately, the steps that Trump has taken against this country will affect none of them or their relatives. It is business as usual as far as they’re concerned.

Sometimes the process is more important than the outcome; the journey even more rewarding than reaching the destination. But it would seem AfriForum and co have not only decided on a different trek but they have in mind a different destination. Getting Trump’s mercurial visage hovering over our politics will be counter-productive. It will undermine those in the black community who’ve been arguing for and working towards a non-racial society and instead strengthen the hand of those mobilising on the basis of race. That will lead to even more fissures in society. Nobody wins.

The ANC won’t lose a single vote as a result of this debacle. In fact, they’re likely to gain even more support. One can almost see the anti-imperialism card regaining its potency.

Washington offers nothing but a mirage. Salvation lies here at home