With the country finding itself in an undesirable position as the US government continues to lash at South Africa for its stance against Israel and its policies aimed at addressing inequalities in South Africa, right-Wing organisations, NGOs, and some political parties are accused of undermining government efforts for racial justice.
Reacting to the Afrikaner rights group AfriForum’s ongoing efforts to pressure the government to abandon plans for the Expropriation Act, which has now been falsely and widely confused with forced land dispossession, Independent Political Analyst and Senior Lecturer at the University of Limpopo Dr. Metji Makgoba weighed in, stating that some of the organisations are not in favour of affirmative action.
This after Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s international envoys are doomed to fail in their planned mission to the US to ease escalating sour diplomatic tensions between the two nations.
“One of the most significant challenges faced by Black South Africans is the ongoing efforts of groups like the DA, AfriForum, and other right-wing organisations to undermine and obstruct the full implementation of affirmative action and redress, particularly in its current tokenistic form.
“Despite the need for systemic change, both practically and ideologically, South Africa still does not have any framework of affirmative action and redress that addresses the deep-rooted inequalities. These right-wing groups have been relentless in their opposition to policies that could pave the way for racial justice. They don't stop affirmative action and redress per se. They ideologically fight against anything they could create channels for this.
Makgoba felt that these organisations' efforts have not only hindered the development of more progressive ideas around affirmative action, but have actively worked to halt any momentum for meaningful change, adding that these organisations were working with the media.
“The most troubling aspect of this situation is that these groups even undermine the African National Congress (ANC)’s conservative policies, which are limited in scope to address racial inequalities. The conservative media plays a crucial role in this process, serving as an influential tool for the right-wing agenda.
“The media amplifies the voices of those who seek to preserve the status quo, reinforcing white privilege in its most entrenched form. The combination of these efforts has created an environment where meaningful discourse and progress on affirmative action and redress remain stunted, leaving Black South Africans to grapple with the consequences of apartheid and colonialism without the necessary support to move forward,” he said.
In countering the false narratives claiming South Africa is taking people’s private properties, Ramaphosa’s envoys will be responsible for clarifying SA’s foreign and domestic policies after a series of false assertions by US President Donald Trump and world’s richest man, SA-born Elon Musk of widespread land grabs under SA’s Expropriation Act.
Expropriation Act is intended to address deep inequalities as the result of apartheid and colonial legislation that resulted in the white minority, who make up just 7% of South Africa’s population, still owning more than 70% of agricultural land more than three decades after the end of the apartheid system imposed by the Afrikaner-dominated government.
The Act permits expropriation in exceptional circumstances, such as abandoned land, but generally requires “just and equitable” compensation.
In May 2018, Kriel and his deputy, Ernst Roets, traveled to the US to lobby the Trump administration in the wake of the government’s decision to redistribute land and to highlight what AfriForum called the “persecution of South Africa’s minorities.”
The pair used South Africa’s high murder rate, including of white farmers, to characterize the killings of Afrikaner landowners as racially targeted.
At the time, John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, Senator Ted Cruz’s staff, and conservative thinktanks in Washington were among some of the receptive politicians who appeared to have been lured into believing claims that Afrikaner farmers were being “tortured to death on farms in unusual ratios” and that “They are being brutally murdered in South Africa for their land.
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