AfriForum and their ilk have certainly achieved the near impossible, putting government diplomats to shame. A bit-part outfit has caught the ear of the most powerful man on Earth, and they’re not about to fritter away their good fortune.
Led by CEO Kallie Kriel, AfriForum’s call to US President Donald Trump for intervention in our politics calls into question the legitimacy of the elected government, which since the last elections is more representative and inclusive than the previous one dominated by the ANC.
Its leaders may think Trump is their friend. What they ignore is that Trump’s actions in dealing with other countries, including the US’s neighbours and purported allies, have demonstrated that he does not want friends who will be treated as equals. He wants minions and vassals who will march to no other drum but his. The US president is a man who has shown himself willing to play fast and loose with constitutionalism and thinks nothing of peddling all manner of untruths.
AfriForum is entitled to champion the rights of the Afrikaner community as they see them. But in a diverse country such as ours, they must ponder whether pursuing a racially segregationist agenda is the right way to go if they truly want to contribute to a harmonious co-existence of all the country’s people.
It should be self-evident that South Africa's problems can only be solved in South Africa, by South Africans, through honest engagement within the parameters of our constitutional values of equality and fair and just treatment of all citizens.
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