The Solidarity Movement rejects the accusations of unpatriotic conduct levelled against it by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday. These accusations are a transparent attempt to find a scapegoat for the government’s own diplomatic failures. Ramaphosa singled out the Movement as the reason for the deteriorating relationship between South Africa and the US, which threatens South Africa’s preferential trade status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This is despite the Movement having spent months engaging in extensive discussions with the South African Presidency, the US Embassy in Pretoria and decision-makers in Washington to find solutions that will benefit everyone in the country.
“For the past five years, we have been lobbying in the US for South Africa to remain part of AGOA, because it has become clear that pressure has been building in both parties in the US to expel South Africa because of ANC policies,” says Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement.
“We stand on South Africa’s side, not that of the White House or Luthuli House. Although we disagree with the ANC, we love our country. That is why we do not speak ill of South Africa, even when we criticise the government. We aim to seek solutions to the ANC’s policies, which are holding the economy back and increasingly causing international tensions,” says Buys.
Although several news publications have already had to apologise to the Solidarity Movement for false claims that the organisation promotes a ‘white genocide’ narrative abroad, Ramaphosa continues to blame the Movement for the ANC’s mistakes.
Misinformation
“The ‘misinformation’ label pinned on us is an attempt to deflect attention from the real issue – the ANC policies in question,” Buys explains. “The only ‘misinformation’ is the false claim that we spread misinformation about the country. No one has been able to provide any evidence to substantiate these accusations. It is absurd to think that a superpower such as the US, with all its intelligence services, does not know what is happening in South Africa and allows its policy to be dictated by ‘misinformation’.”
The reasons for the US government’s hostile stance towards the South African government are set out, among other places, in the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025. They include:
- Strategic alignment with US adversaries: South Africa’s ties with countries regarded as hostile to US interests, particularly China, Russia and Iran.
- Engagement with terrorist organisations: South Africa’s interactions with Hamas.
- South Africa’s increasingly hostile stance towards Israel.
- Concerns about corruption and human rights: The US’s intention to identify senior South African officials and ANC members who may be involved in human rights violations or serious corruption.
- Military cooperation: South Africa’s participation in joint naval exercises with Russia and China in early 2023, which is at odds with the country’s stated neutrality.
“The seriousness of this long list of objections to the South African government predates Trump’s second presidency,” Buys emphasises.
The facts
Buys adds that the Movement consistently advocates constitutionalism, effective institutions and self-reliance, and has often stepped in where the government has been absent or ineffective. In response to the false accusations, the Solidarity Movement sets out the facts:
- We have not claimed that large-scale state-led land expropriation is already taking place in South Africa.
- We have never asked the US to cut funding to South Africa or impose sanctions on the country.
- We have actively opposed South Africa’s removal from AGOA and shared research with the US Embassy on the economic risks facing the country.
- We have urged the US not to punish South Africans for the ANC’s actions, but rather to take action against individual ANC officials implicated in corruption. The Zondo Commission reportedly identified 97 ANC members who should be investigated. Yet meaningful progress remains elusive, highlighting a troubling lack of accountability.
- We are indeed in dispute with the ANC because our constitutional human rights are being trampled on by the country’s extensive race-based legislation. We also disagree with the ANC over the government’s breach of an agreement on this legislation reached through the mediation of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the breach of the constitutional understanding on Afrikaans education, and the breach of agreements with us on these matters. We believe the ANC is seeking to deprive us of our cultural rights and spaces. All of this makes us second-class citizens, even though we are first-class taxpayers and are governed as though we were in a Third World country.
- Mr Ramaphosa has repeatedly said that South Africa must find South African solutions to South African problems, yet he refuses our requests for talks and breaches agreements reached with the Presidency.
- We are proud South Africans and patriotic Afrikaners, committed to the country’s future and willing to help restore sound relations between the US and South Africa. It is time for the Government of National Unity (GNU) to determine the country’s policies, rather than the ANC alone.
“We reaffirm our unwavering loyalty to South Africa and reject any claims that our actions – taken in the national interest – are unpatriotic simply because we disagree democratically with the ANC’s disastrous policies,” Buys concludes.
