South Africa is approaching the fiftieth anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising. The rallying cry of black youth in 1976 was: “We do not want to be taught in Afrikaans.” Fifty years later, a new cry has emerged: “You may not be taught in Afrikaans.” The 1976 slogan was a cry for freedom. The slogan of 2026 is its opposite: an attempt to deny Afrikaans speakers the freedom to receive education in their mother tongue.
For Afrikaners, this is nothing new. More than two centuries ago, on 19 July 1822, Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape, issued a directive declaring English the sole language of instruction in the Colony’s schools. The purpose was clear: to consolidate British dominance.
Concentration camps
A century later, during the Anglo-Boer War, the British established English-medium schools inside concentration camps as part of an effort to anglicise Afrikaner children. The British Director of Education, E.B. Sargant, made the objective explicit: “English must be the only language throughout South Africa.” Following the British victory, the new Governor, Lord Alfred Milner, triumphantly declared: “I have saved the British position in South Africa and have knocked the bottom out of the great Afrikaner nation for ever and ever, Amen.”
Almost a century later, the constitutional settlement of 1994 guaranteed mother-tongue education, including at university level. Afrikaans speakers believed that the lessons of 1822, 1902 and 1976 had finally been learned. They believed that everyone’s freedom to use and develop their language and culture through institutions such as schools and universities was secure. Afrikaans, at last, had been decolonised.
English
Yet the position of non-English languages has deteriorated sharply since 1994. All historically Afrikaans universities and hundreds of Afrikaans schools have, over time, been compelled to anglicise.
The BELA amendments of 2024 grant state officials the final authority over schools’ language and admission policies. This caused significant concern among Afrikaans-speaking communities because ANC politicians, acting as modern-day Lord Somersets, made it clear that they intended to use the legislation to force Afrikaans schools to change their language policies.
Broken agreements
The tensions created by these legislative amendments and political statements led to negotiations between the government and Afrikaans interest groups, resulting in two separate settlements. Those settlements were effectively abandoned almost immediately after the President proceeded with the implementation of the BELA Amendment Act. Shortly thereafter, the ANC government also reneged on an agreement concerning affirmative action that had been reached with Solidarity and facilitated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), by introducing new racial quotas. During the same period, the President signed legislation enabling expropriation without compensation. To add insult to injury, South Africa’s highest courts ruled that the slogan “Kill the Boer” does not constitute hate speech and is therefore permissible.
These repeated breaches of formal agreements have created a profound breakdown of trust. The Solidarity Movement, which includes AfriForum, views this as a breach of the 1994 settlement itself.
The Afrikaner Declaration
In an effort to repair this growing trust deficit, Afrikaner organisations representing approximately two million people issued an Afrikaner Declaration, extending a hand of cooperation to our fellow South Africans. The declaration made three things clear: that Afrikaners see South Africa as their future; that we wish to work alongside others; and that we seek to create the conditions necessary to protect our language and culture so that Afrikaners are not alienated from their homeland, but are able to build, remain, and contribute to making South Africa a better country for all. The government did not respond.
The ANC versus South Africa
Following President Trump’s election in the United States, Solidarity used its access in Washington to argue that ordinary South Africans should not suffer the consequences of tensions between governments. We love this country, even if we do not support the ANC. We have stated unequivocally that we do not regard the situation in South Africa as a genocide, nor do we view ourselves as refugees. We do, however, believe that the ANC has breached the 1994 settlement, and that the United States has a role to play in supporting reconciliation in South Africa, just as it did before 1994.
Rights, not grievances
Du Preez’s claim that Afrikaners, or the work of the Solidarity Movement, are driven by grievance politics is simply unfounded. We are defending our language and culture and asserting our constitutional rights and freedoms. This is not nationalism; it is cultural self-preservation. The more than 600 000 members of our Movement support our work because we offer practical solutions to challenges, including mother-tongue education, training, safety, and many other pressing concerns.
The Solidarity Movement is a proud South African, Afrikaner and African organisation. We are building the cultural ecosystem necessary to ensure that Afrikaners can continue to live, build and thrive in South Africa with confidence. In doing so, we seek to make a lasting contribution to the wellbeing of this country and all its people.
By Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement.
Max du Preez peppers his scathing attack on Solidarity and AfriForum with liberal quantities of loaded terms such as “hardcore nationalist,” “right-wing,” “fundamentalist ideologue,” and more.
Apartheid and accusations of racism are the final trump cards that are played against an Afrikaner organisation once all the other cards have been exhausted.
We will not be intimidated by false accusations that try to silence us when we attempt to protect the human rights and interests of South-Africans, including Afrikaners.
The motivation behind the Solidarity Movement’s “we will do it ourselves, and we will do it together” strategy, is an honest attempt to work with our fellow citizens in a spirit of mutual recognition and respect, to make South Africa a better place for all. The core of our culture remains ’a Boer makes a plan’.
We certainly do not long for the past under apartheid, but neither do we look forward to the future under the ANC.
Ever since I was a student, I have therefore sought a third way as an alternative to apartheid on the one hand, and a country dominated by a revolutionary movement with totalitarian tendencies on the other. As a Christian democrat, I advocated, following the example of Conrad Adenauer, a federal model as a third way for South Africa, as it safeguards freedom for all much better.
Misinformation
Like the ANC’s Secretary-General, Du Preez blames our “misinformation” for the deterioration in relations between South Africa and the United States, even though he knows that several media houses have had to apologise to us for falsely claiming that we made allegations of a “genocide”.
In the process, Du Preez ignores the fact that the ANC government is responsible for the diplomatic dispute due to its foreign policy and certain race-based policies that hamper economic growth and job creation while contributing to racial polarisation. Secondly, he disregards Solidarity and AfriForum’s efforts to persuade American decision-makers, using factual information, not to punish the country with tariffs, sanctions, and exclusion from AGOA simply because they disagree with the ANC.
These efforts, undertaken in the national interest, have repeatedly been undermined by ANC leaders through their continued and unnecessary actions against US interests.
Our engagement with the Trump administration is not based on taking their political side against the South African government. It is, however, in South Africa’s national interest to maintain good relations with the US government, as well as other countries. The ANC government’s long-standing neglect of these relationships compelled us, out of patriotism for the country, to intervene despite our differences with the ANC.
It is also our democratic right to inform the international community when the ANC breaches the 1994 settlement, for example, through attacks on Afrikaans schools and race-based legislation.
Fire brigade
AfriForum runs around 100 projects nationwide every day to make the country a better place by improving municipal services, repairing roads, combating crime through neighborhood watches, and upholding the rule of law. These projects may serve Afrikaner interests, but they also serve the broader public interest. We cannot provide all state services without state revenue. The ANC is elected, paid, and funded through our taxes to deliver public services. We are criticized for creating a so called parallel state, yet no alternative is offered for what we are supposed to do when the ANC allows one public service after another to collapse.
Voters who, despite the rotten and corrupt government under which they suffer, repeatedly vote for the same party become accomplices rather than victims. We therefore welcome polls indicating that increasing numbers of historic ANC voters wish to free themselves from their former party.
Nor is it clear what Max’s proposal is when Afrikaners are excluded, based on race, from services for which they pay taxes. He complains more loudly about the siren of AfriForum and Solidarity’s fire engine than about the radical arsonists who are governing the country into ruin while looting it.
Let me put it bluntly: the ‘Maxists’ helped propagate the Marxists into power, and now they stand astonished at the foreseeable consequences, and are angry with us for attempting to halt the decline and implement practical rebuilding plans. The anti-apartheid industry, which previously protested loudly against the former oppressive racial dispensation, is now deathly silent about the failed racial system that replaced it in the name of redress. Basic mathematics shows that laws against 5% young whites cannot improve the chances of 95% young black people.
Normality
Our Movement does not have an evil plan to revive the past, but rather a plan to create a normal future. We simply want what the people of the Western Cape, from where Max safely writes, already have: functioning towns, an effective civil service, safety, a say in matters that affect us, good race relations, and the political, economic, and cultural freedom to live our lives as we see fit, without endless race laws and a government ruling against us.
We are not simply asking for fair rulers; we know that greater freedom is a prerequisite for normality. We do not experience it as a democracy when Mr Panyaza Lesufi, with only around 34% of the ANC vote in Gauteng, effectively holds 100% of the power over Afrikaans schools.
Demographic democracy
South Africa is not merely a country of isolated individuals that can easily be governed by a central government with a standardised policy. Credible opinion polls show that it is a country of many languages and cultures, rather than four races or a single South African identity.
This heterogeneous population has survived various governments and dispensations and is far too complex to be governed through a simplistic majoritarian system. For roughly three decades, South Africa has been a demographic democracy in which people vote more according to identity than policy. The overwhelming majority of voters do not ask: “What does my party believe?” but rather: “Who is my party?”
Voting behaviour is not similar to consumer behaviour, in which people shift their support to the best product or service. This is not unique to South Africa. It is therefore good news for freedom and democracy that the ANC has been forced into a GNU at national level, and that the upcoming local government elections are likely to produce more coalitions that may hopefully save many towns and cities from decline.
Realities
Naturally, I hope that the majority of voters will vote the ANC out of power in the near future. But hope is not a strategy, and we must work with realities rather than wishes.
As David Welsh warned: “The comparative evidence from divided societies does not offer much support for the view that the salience of ethnic or racial identities will eventually give way to voting alignments that are shaped more by, say, class, interests or ideology.”
This does not mean that I have lost hope in democracy. For democracy to be sustainable, however, a dispensation must meet the conditions required for democracy. One important condition is cultural freedom, because democracy without cultural freedom generally amounts to freedom only for the demographic majority. We do not want special favours, but we do not want to plead forever on our knees for cultural rights and -room that are in the constitution.
Weather bureau
If Max genuinely believes that we welcome racial polarisation and the failure of South Africa, then he believes many other strange things as well. A single look at the country’s population composition, economy, divisions, and political realities clearly shows that good race relations and a functioning country are in everyone’s interest. Fortunately, although political relations may be poor, good personal relationships between people remain strong.
Max is correct that I began my career at the far-right Mine Workers’ Union (MWU). That is precisely why my colleagues and I transformed the organisation into a mainstream Christian-democratic movement.
It is also true that we did not believe the ANC would govern the country as successfully as, for example, Botswana has been governed. A thorough study of ANC policy convinced us that the party still clings to an outdated ideology with which it cannot successfully govern a country with such a large modern sector.
We concluded that, due to history, Afrikaners could become a vulnerable minority group and that a self declared revolutionary government could drive the most educated out of the country, to the great detriment of the country and all its people.
Our starting point was that a strong self-help movement would become necessary to counter state decay, implement practical solutions at the grassroots level, and protect freedom, democracy, and the legitimate human rights of Afrikaners and other groups. I therefore believed it essential to transform the former MWU into a modern network of self-help organisations founded on mainstream Christian-democratic principles.
We take no pleasure in watching the country steadily decline, like it gives the weather bureau no pleasure to see a destructive storm weather, against which they had warned for so long, finally arrive.
Compete or cooperate
We do not believe that the best solution for good race relations is to compete head-on with the demographic majority for political support. We therefore strive instead for cooperation based on mutual recognition and respect. The advantage of this approach is that common viewpoints on all issues are not essential, only shared interests like to make the country a better place.
This is the essence of our engagement and cooperation with numerous black and coloured groups and leaders across the country.
The French classical thinker Alexis de Tocqueville said: “The majority will accept the minority only if the minority gives up that which it values most.” I therefore believe in Ralph Sockman’s advice: “The test of tolerance comes when you are in a majority. The test of courage comes when you are in a minority.”
We look forward to continuing to play a constructive role now that both countries have appointed ambassadors to each other’s capitals.
South Africa’s motto is unity in diversity. Our cultural identity as Afrikaners does not conflict with our national identity as South Africans. Our Movement uses the constitutional space for diversity to build a cultural ecosystem that enables long-term survival. This will enable Afrikaners to make a sustainable contribution to the well-being of the country and all its people.
By Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement.
Why does affirmative action remain such a significant problem for many whites?
What reasonable person could be opposed to redress for past injustices or efforts to promote equality? Can there truly still be people who resist the advancement of blacks, or who oppose the creation of greater opportunities for blacks in occupational groups where they are poorly represented?
Are there still people who do not recognise that black empowerment and development are essential for the country? What inspired Solidarity to display banners during last year’s G20 Summit with the statement that South Africa is the most race-regulated country in the world?
These and other questions trouble those who feel some whites complain unfairly, are selfishly focused on their own problems and show little willingness to address the country’s real crises.
Poverty or inequality?
For example, consider the levels of unemployment and poverty in the country, which — although increasing rapidly among whites — remain overwhelmingly a “black” crisis.
The question, then, is why it still appears that many whites who are merely “selfishly” guarding their own privileges are, in fact, camouflaged racists who show little concern for the fate of their fellow citizens, and seek only to entrench their prosperity behind high walls, security fences and privatisation.
If this is the future, then there is none; there is no hope for white or black, poor or rich, in South Africa.
The question is whether the government’s emphasis after 1994 should not have been on the solution of poverty rather than on the redistribution of existing jobs and wealth. After all, economic growth is the fastest equaliser and the most effective, proven solution to poverty. As American economist Thomas Sowell puts it: “What do the poor most need? They need to stop being poor. And how can that be done on a mass scale, except by an economy that creates vastly more wealth? Yet the political left has long had a remarkable lack of interest in how wealth is created. As far as they are concerned, wealth exists somehow, and the only interesting question is how to redistribute it.”
Affirmative action
But let us return to the question posed at the beginning. Why are Solidarity and so many whites negative about affirmative action? The short answer is that the outcomes after three decades have shown that the South African model of affirmative action does not work — it is counterproductive and harmful to the country and all its people.
No-one is opposed to righting what is wrong, nor is there resistance to equality or to measures aimed at achieving greater equality. The problem therefore does not lie with genuine redress, equal opportunities or the increased representation of blacks in certain job levels.
Affirmative action has been widely used around the world to protect minorities and help ensure their rightful share of the economic pie. It is normally a temporary mechanism in a free economy to achieve true equality by eliminating direct and indirect factors that hinder equality. Society can then move forward freely and equally, without state interference and characterised by true diversity.
What began more than three decades ago as an affirmative measure has resulted in a comprehensive racial distribution that is incompatible with a constitutional democracy, a functioning state and a growing economy capable of providing for all its people.
The challenge for South Africa was to apply a model developed to protect minorities, to advance majorities. Over time though, a growing gap emerged between beautiful constitutional theory and the harsh realities.
What the constitution allows has in practice hardened into a permanent state ideology that has become a higher authority than the constitution itself. Moreover, these measures no longer meet international legal requirements for timeliness, proportionality and appropriateness.
As a result, they provide ammunition for business leaders like Elon Musk to discredit South Africa on the international stage by saying there are more racial laws now than during apartheid.
The positions of the opponents of laws based on race are the following:
They consider such laws to be unconstitutional, since article 1 of the constitution states that South Africa is a nonracial state.
They argue that the laws do not comply with international law, which requires remedial measures to be temporary, proportionate and nuanced. International standards place greater emphasis on education and people’s socioeconomic status than on race. That is why the International Labour Organisation (ILO) considered Solidarity’s formal complaint and facilitated a mediation process between Solidarity and the government, which culminated in an agreement in 2024. This agreement was ratified by a court order and published in the Government Gazette, only to be breached again by the government with new racial regulations less than a year later.
This is unworkable, as the numerical ratios in the country make it impossible for laws targeting about 7% of the population to benefit the remaining 93%. There is a clear distinction between a system that protects minorities in a growing economy and one that seeks to uplift majorities in a shrinking labour market.
This constitutes an injustice against young whites under the age of 18, who comprise only 4.6% of the population. They are blamed for events that occurred before they were born, while the ANC does not take responsibility for its current actions. It also creates false expectations among the nearly 96% of young blacks that the measures directed at the 4.6% young whites will benefit them.
It is unfair, as the new dispensation was supposed to rest on a higher moral foundation than the crude racial measures of apartheid.
It harms whites without significantly benefiting blacks. If all whites were immediately removed from the labour force, black unemployment would drop by only 2.6 percentage points. The primary problem for whites is not unemployment, but underemployment (being employed in positions below their qualifications) due to the racial laws.
This is economically harmful for the country, as the World Bank and numerous other institutions have pointed out. It plays a significant role in the country’s long-standing economic stagnation. BEE compliance costs the country 2%-4% of GDP annually, equivalent to R145bn-R290bn.
It contributes significantly to the weakening and decay of numerous state institutions, as the emphasis in appointments falls more on race than on merit, while South Africa urgently needs a culture of excellence. In this way, it harms the poor through poor service delivery, which has become the “new normal” in many towns.
As a result, the most qualified people often do not get the job, since employment is driven by output-based targets rather than input-based principles.
The pursuit of equal outcomes leads to restrictions on the freedom of people and companies.
It has unintended consequences, such as enabling the system of tenderpreneurship and fostering a sense of entitlement.
It operates in the name of promoting diversity and uniformity, since all job levels are required to reflect the demographics.
It drives many job creators, high-level skills and high-net taxpayers out of the country. It has also torn so many families apart, with relatives living on different continents and children growing up without their parents or grandparents.
This is unnecessary, as given the population composition of South Africa a merit-based system would still result in the vast majority of appointments being blacks.
It leads to demographic dominance of minorities due to the imposition of the population composition on all institutions. In a country with South Africa’s varied geographical and demographic realities, not every institution can be fully representative. Therefore, the aspiration should be that institutions collectively reflect the population as a whole. Policies such as cadre deployment and “African hegemony” are aimed more at achieving dominance than at genuine correction.
It encourages a “demographic democracy”, as the ANC seeks to secure voters’ loyalty by emphasising race and racial favouritism.
That affirmative action in the workplace and BEE regulations apply to businesses means minorities’ lives and life chances in all areas are regulated by race.
The legislation obstructs the exercise of other constitutional rights, such as article 22, which guarantees freedom of choice of occupation and profession.
The South African model of affirmative action is an example of the unintended consequences that arise when a system takes on a life of its own, hardens into a state ideology, and extends far beyond the understandable correction of past injustices.
The most effective measure to promote redress and inclusive development remains economic growth, supported by input-driven programmes such as training, rather than output-driven targets that have in practice solidified into a comprehensive quota system. Such an input-driven approach provides the fastest and most natural way to achieve racial representation, without the unaffordable unintended consequences of the current system.
South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in the world, according to various sources. It is therefore urgently necessary to stimulate economic growth, create more jobs and reduce inequalities. Yet the outcomes after three decades indicate that the current model is no longer effective and that it is necessary to return to the drawing board, rather than trying to defend an unworkable and unjustifiable system.
The current redress model has not remedied the consequences of decades of apartheid, but worsened it — except for the benefit of a largely politically connected elite. At the same time it has become such a comprehensive set of racial measures that many whites feel wronged and even oppressed, as their lives are regulated by race.
After all, affirmative action is intended as a shield to help people, not as a sword to harm or dominate others.
By Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement.
(This article was written by an honours student at the University of Hertfordshirein England andsubmitted to the Solidarity Movement. It provides a summary of recent political events in South Africa from an international perspective.)
South African politics has slowly but steadily regained international attention after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order cutting US funding to the country, shortly after President Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act into law. This law allows the government to expropriate private property with zero compensation.
President Trump’s decision coincided with the Washington Memorandum, presented by a delegation in Washington DC. This delegation included high-ranking members of the civil rights lobby group AfriForum, the trade union Solidarity (previously known as the Transvaal Miners’ Association from its founding in 1902 until 1913 and the Mine Workers’ Union from then until 1997, and the broader Solidarity Movement (of which both organisations are member institutions). The delegation met with representatives of President Trump’s administration, during which the parties discussed several concerns that they felt had remained unaddressed, or even exacerbated, by the ruling party.
Additionally, President Trump has ordered the establishment of provisions to allow white South Africans to be resettled in the United States as political refugees. While many have applied for the programme out of disillusionment with South Africa’s political system, others – including the Solidarity Movement and residents of the Afrikaner cultural settlement of Orania – have expressed a preference for the United States to instead “help us here”. [The presenter in the video is Mr Joost Strydom, the leader of the Orania Movement, the organisation responsible for promoting and maintaining the cultural settlement under South African constitutional law. He has gone on record in an interview with Newzroom Afrika to discuss the frequent xenophobic remarks and rhetoric directed at Afrikaners.]
During the delegation’s visit, Dr Ernst Roets (former deputy CEO of AfriForum and Head of Policy at the Solidarity Movement) was interviewed by renowned journalist and political commentator Tucker Carlson. Carlson is known for, among other things, his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Russo-Ukrainian War. In the interview, Dr Roets discussed the context surrounding current events in South Africa. In response to the US cutting funding, the uMKhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, founded and led by former president Jacob Zuma – who has faced several charges of corruption over the years – subsequently made a public bid to prosecute AfriForum for treason.
Since the visit, there has been a massive uproar on both sides of the political aisle within South Africa. A notable example is the slew of death threats issued by Mr Mehmet Vefa Dag, president of the Truth and Solidarity Movement Party (and former spokesman of the now-defunct Land Party), on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Mr Dag called AfriForum’s CEO Kallie Kriel a “terrorist” and demanded that he “be hanged in Sharpeville as an example for humanity,” attaching a photograph of a noose and gallows alongside one of Mr Kriel for added emphasis.
After receiving intense backlash in response to his demands and his post being removed for violating X’s rules, Mr Dag doubled down by attaching a screenshot of his earlier post to a new one, which reads as follows:
We don’t support AfriForum. We don’t support Kallie Kriel. We don’t support Ernst Roets. We don’t support Ian Cameron[.] We don’t support Corne [sic] Mulder[.] We stand with justice, equality, morality and righteous doing. Censorship and intimidation will not work. Continue the good fight.
Aside from the Solidarity Movement and President Trump, several other opponents have emerged against the ANC’s agenda of legalising Expropriation Without Compensation (or “EWC”). Theo de Jager, head of the Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai), has been an outspoken critic of the government on this matter and several others. He recently wrote an open letter to President Trump concerning his approach and response to South Africa’s current affairs. Some time later, De Jager was edited out of a photograph of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s recent delegation to Germany, as used in the Department’s official publication. The reason for this omission has not been explained.
Furthermore, a major agricultural organisation in the Free State province, Free State Agriculture, recently launched a survey among its members to determine whether they supported FSA severing ties with its parent organisation, AgriSA, who openly supports the ANC and its stances regarding land reform and opposition to the United States on a number of geopolitical matters. The results have not yet been released at the time of writing, but FSA has openly opposed the government (and, by extension, AgriSA) on these matters.
Xavier Pierre Malaprade was born in 2003 in Orleans, France, to Afrikaner parents from the former Transvaal, who subsequently moved to England. The second of three children and son of Jacques and Erica Malaprade (née Eloff), he grew up in Caversham, an eastern suburb of Reading, Berkshire. Despite his expatriate upbringing, his family frequently spoke Afrikaans at home, and he developed a strong sense of his cultural identity and heritage as an Afrikaner and as a descendant of the Voortrekkers as he grew older.
After discovering a natural fondness for literature and history, and learning more about the plight of his ethnic brethren overseas, he was moved to pursue a career in journalism in the hopes of exposing corruption and bringing popular attention to the truth. He is now completing his final year of a BA Honours in Politics and International Relations and Journalism at the University of Hertfordshire.
Even more extensive economic and diplomatic damage, further job losses, an exodus of investors and obstacles being experienced with the issuing of essential trade permits and travel visas – all of this Solidarity believes to count among the possible consequences the downsizing of the US embassy in Pretoria, as well as the possible closure of the US consulate in Johannesburg could have for South Africans.
These realities loom as a result of the South African government’s disintegrating relationship with the United States of America. This diplomatic crisis could result in a dramatic scaling down of the extent of the American diplomatic mission in South Africa.
A dispute over South Africa’s official policy positions triggered a diplomatic crisis between the countries, and this is currently being exacerbated by the Johannesburg Metro Council’s bid to rename the street in which the US consulate is located in Sandton after a Palestinian freedom fighter.
There is a risk that the US may want to close its Johannesburg consulate, while the remaining consulates in Cape Town and Durban could also be in question.
Solidarity believes a further diplomatic miscalculation, as would be the case with the street name change currently being considered by the Metro Council, will further damage an already fragile relationship.
According to the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), the closure of the Johannesburg consulate alone would be a significant blow, as Johannesburg is South Africa’s economic capital and is also home to several US and multinational companies in the country.
The SRI believes the closure will, among other things:
• Complicate the process for South African travellers seeking to obtain visas;
• Obstruct the process South African businesspersons have to follow to obtain visas and for businesses needing essential trade permits and documentation;
• Harm investor confidence as the closure is a sign of a further disintegration of diplomatic relations;
• Cause job losses for South Africans as major US companies may terminate or reconsider their presence in South Africa;
• Cause hotels, restaurants and service providers that depend on consular visitors to lose income, leading to further job losses; and
• Limit US contributions made through the consulate towards valuable intelligence on transnational crime, money laundering and terrorism, reducing South Africa’s resistance to organised crime.
According to Jaco Kleynhans, head of public liaison at Solidarity, far more serious consequences than the closure of a consulate may follow if radical government officials persist in an ideological struggle against the US.
“It is in no South African’s interest to be exposed to the risk of further economic decline and international isolation for the sake of ANC policies and agendas.
“This is what the downsizing of the US mission and the closure of a consulate would bring about.
“Also keep in mind that American companies, many of which have offices in Johannesburg, some of them located close to the consulate in Sandton, employ thousands of South Africans. Moreover, they contribute billions of rand in taxes to the Treasury.
“Unfortunately, it seems that our government is going to persist with its anti-Western narrative and is therefore comfortable with ordinary South Africans being punished for the government’s sins,” Kleynhans cautioned.
South Africa’s relationship with the Trump administration is currently experiencing an unprecedented low.
The relationship has suffered further setbacks in recent weeks due to the offensive statements made towards the US by the former South African ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, and insults from ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula.
The US has also taken note of the Ramaphosa government’s silence on the EFF Party’s singing of the struggle song “Kill the Boer” on Human Rights Day.
United States President Donald Trump caused a stir this month with his executive order, which among other things, allows Afrikaners who are prejudiced by racial laws or expropriation without compensation to seek refuge in America.
The fact that the ANC is throwing everything but the kitchen sink in its attempt to govern alone instead of through a government of national unity has now completely alienated the new government in Washington. This is why the Solidarity Movement will now accept the hand of friendship extended by the Americans and offer practical suggestions on how Afrikaners can be helped to live sustainably in Africa, so that we can make a lasting contribution to the well-being of the country and all its people.
We cannot allow a corrupt, incompetent and racist government to drive us out of the country. That is not who we are. We are determined, in the words of Afrikaans writer and scholar NP van Wyk Louw, to carry the treasure of our language and culture safely through the crowd. After all, we did not cross the oceans, survive through centuries, venture into the unknown, stand up to great powers on the battlefield and produce world-class achievements because we are made of jelly.
Here are 10 historical reasons why we will stay and why we will do things ourselves.
We became Afrikaners in Africa
The first Buys in South Africa was a German soldier who sailed from Amsterdam on the Risdam in 1714 to work for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Like most other Afrikaner families, the Buys family has therefore been in Africa for more than three centuries. We did not come to Africa as Afrikaners. We became Afrikaners here, long before the birth of South Africa as a country. Our language and culture are indigenous to Africa, and nowhere else. We named ourselves, our language and many of our institutions after Africa.
Afrikaners are a self-defined cultural community – a people – and not simply a language group or a racial grouping. Through Afrikaans, we also have a linguistic bond with coloured South Africans, as Afrikaans is one language with many cultures. We come from a Christian Western tradition, and most of us trust in God’s promises of hope for the future.
We are Westerners in and from Africa
NP van Wyk Louw put it strikingly: “In every generation, the task is to keep both our heritages – European and African – close to the heart; to be in Africa, knowing that we are from the old West; to be Western, without disregarding a single difference from Africa” (author’s own translation).
Van Wyk Louw also spoke so beautifully about Afrikaans: “Afrikaans can remain vital only as long as it remains the carrier of our full destiny, of our knowledge-to-both-sides; as long as it continues to think concretely and abstractly; as long as Europe and Africa live in it; Africa indeed, yet also always Europe.”
He saw Afrikaans as the language that connects Western Europe and Africa: “It forms a bridge between the great bright West and the magical Africa, and what great things can arise from their union – this is perhaps what lies ahead for Afrikaans to be discovered.”
The People’s Poet Totius expressed it just as beautifully: “A fine mystical bond of union connects Orange, the Netherlands and Africa throughout everything. No matter how far the waves wash us, the deep heart will always feel – we are secretly one.”
Rather barefoot over the mountains …
After the British had annexed Natal and the Boer Republic of Vryheid in 1843, the Voortrekkers moved again. In the famous words of Johanna Smit to the British representative: “We would rather walk barefoot over the Drakensberg than suffer under British rule any longer.”
The pursuit of freedom as the driving force behind the Great Trek was articulated by Great Trek leaders such as Andries Pretorius, who stated that they left their birthplace not in revolt but in pursuit of freedom. The Dutch thinker Bob Goudzwaard, after studying the history of the Afrikaners, argued that their story was a struggle for survival more than for domination. I find it inconceivable that the sacrifices of our ancestors would be in vain if we were to turn our back on our history.
Collaboration with other communities
It is true that there were many battles and conflicts with indigenous black tribes. However, this is not the full story; there were also numerous peace agreements and instances of collaboration with black groups.
A good description of this is found in the Voortrekker leader Hendrik Potgieter’s report of 3 December 1838 sent to the Governor of the Cape after the Great Trek: “First, we encountered Captain Danser and concluded a peace treaty with him; secondly, King Maroka, with whom we also concluded a peace treaty; thirdly, Captain Pieter Davieds, with whom we likewise concluded a peace treaty; fourthly, King Sikonyela, with whom we also concluded a peace treaty; fifthly Captain Makwana, with whom we also concluded a peace treaty” (a free translation of the original Dutch text).
Churchill on Boer fighters
The most striking description of the Boer fighters was given by the famous statesman Winston Churchill, who came to fight against us as a journalist.
What men they were, these Boers! I thought of them as I had seen them in the morning riding forward through the rain – thousands of independent riflemen, thinking for themselves, possessed of beautiful weapons, led with skill, living as they rode without commissariat or transport or ammunition column, moving like the wind, and supported by iron constitutions and a stern, hard Old Testament God who should surely smite the Amalekites hip and thigh.
Defeated and dejected
The British scorched earth policy and the concentration camps were devastating. My one grandfather and one grandmother were child survivors of the camps, while my other great-grandfather was imprisoned, and his house was arsoned after he had smuggled horses for the Free State Boers as a colonial subject. Prof. David Welsh described the condition of Afrikaners after the Anglo-Boer War as follows:
After 1902 the Afrikaners of the defeated Trekker republics displayed many of the symptoms of a conquered people: impoverished, defeated, despairing, low in morale, and with a powerfully internalised inferiority complex. They were facing the possible obliteration of their identity by the overwhelming power of their conqueror’s institutions and culture.
The recovery after the war was extremely difficult, and historian Dan O’Meara could have been describing my mineworker grandfather when he outlined their struggle until 1948:
The structure of South African capitalism offered few opportunities to those whose home language was Afrikaans. Its language was English, and Afrikaans-speakers were powerfully discriminated against. Promotion and advancement required both proficiency in a foreign language – that of a conqueror – and virtual total acceptance of the structure and values dominant in the economy.
A fiery Cold War
The Cold War was raging in South Africa, with the ANC squarely in the Communist camp. This put the South African Defence Force in direct conflict with the former Soviet Union and Red China that had armed and supported the liberation movements in Southern Africa.
The Cold War froze whatever political manoeuvring space there had been, and the South African Defence Force and South African Police were tasked with preventing a violent revolutionary takeover until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc made negotiations possible. Western powers, particularly the immense pressure from the USA on the NP government, played a major role in the eventual constitutional settlement.
Africa after independence
Understandably, Afrikaners were also very sceptical about the prospects of a successful democracy in South Africa, given the outcomes that Western models had led to in Africa. Martin Meredith sums it up aptly in his book The Fortunes of Africa:
The succession of coups in Africa swept on so rapidly that many episodes passed by in little more than a blur. In the first two decades of independence, there were some forty successful coups and countless attempted coups. Not once was there an occasion when an African government was peacefully voted out of office.
A movement founded
The origins of the Solidarity Movement can be traced back to the 1998 congress of the then Mine Workers’ Union, where the trade union’s national council accepted my proposal to transform the MWU into a modern self-help movement.
The reason for this was twofold: we did not believe that the ANC could successfully govern the country, and we believed that they would create a new racial dispensation that would effectively turn Afrikaners into second-class citizens.
The aim of the Movement was to build the cultural infrastructure that Afrikaners would need to remain sustainably free, safe and prosperous in southern Africa. In so doing, Afrikaners would at the same time be able to make a lasting contribution to the well-being of the country and all its people. Our assumption at the time – that we would initially be denounced as radicals but would gradually gain more support as the outcomes of ANC policy became visible – has been realised in practice.
In the 1990s, the country had to change to prevent a terrible end. The task of our movement now is to help prevent an endless horror.
Foreign support
For years after 1994, it was impossible to gain support for Afrikaners’ legitimate aspirations for cultural autonomy because the ANC had taken the moral high ground, and the consequences of their policies were not yet clear to the outside world.
The ANC’s rotten track record of governance, leading to widespread state failure, along with the ongoing centralisation of power and the accompanying curtailment of freedoms, gave new meaning to Prof. Welsh’s warning about a “tyranny of the majority”.
Welsh stated:
Simple majority rule … can easily – and commonly does – degenerate into a “tyranny of the majority” when elections assume the form of a racial census. Undeniably, majorities have rights, but so do minorities. If […] majorities use their power to steamroller minorities, denying them influence even in decisions that affect their vital interests, the quality of democracy will deteriorate.
Moreover, the comparative evidence from divided societies does not offer much support for the view that the salience of ethnic or racial identities will eventually give way to voting alignments that are shaped more by, say, class, interests or ideology. Democratic constitutional forms have been maintained, but a single-party dominant system become entrenched.
There is growing anger in the US government over South Africa’s foreign policy. This is going to cost South Africa dearly, and tens of thousands of people who will lose their jobs will pay the price for the government’s reckless policies.
This is the reaction of the Solidarity Movement, of which AfriForum and Solidarity are part, after discussions yesterday with senior members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the USA. This follows discussions held earlier in the week with senior members of the Trump administration in the White House.
Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, says that over the years, the ANC government has alienated the world’s largest economy which could have an enormous impact on South Africa.
“It seems that the South African government does not realise the seriousness of the situation. They are looking for scapegoats, believing that the current situation is just a diplomatic misunderstanding. In reality, this is a diplomatic crisis, but the ANC insists that they will not be bullied.
“The levels of frustration in the USA are so high that a bill is being considered to review the bilateral relations between the USA and South Africa,” says Buys.
This draft bill was already approved by the House of Representatives in 2024 but not taken up by the Senate. Given the rapidly changing relationship between South Africa and the US, members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs are currently considering re-submitting the law to the House of Representatives.
Since Republicans now also control the Senate, the law will have a better chance of acceptance. Given the critical stance that the White House and members of the Trump administration have taken towards South Africa, the climate for new legislation on the US relationship with South Africa is even better now.
This bill details South Africa’s historic ties with the terrorist group Hamas, and with countries such as China, Iran and Russia, and argues that South Africa has abandoned its policy of neutrality.
Furthermore, the bill also addresses South Africa’s flawed domestic policy, the government’s inability to govern the country and its laxity towards corruption.
A comprehensive review of the bilateral relations between the USA and South Africa is proposed in the bill.
If this bill is passed, it would be solely the fault of the government, and specifically the ANC. This situation has been building up over many years and the recent passing of the Expropriation Act was merely the trigger.
This bill could have disastrous consequences for South Africa’s participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) – a law offering tariff relief to African countries.
Currently, AGOA and trade with the USA create jobs for approximately 500 000 South Africans.
The Solidarity Movement has proposed that, instead of punishing ordinary South Africans, the focus should rather be on sanctions against corrupt individuals and pressure on ANC leaders.
“The South African government is conspicuous by its absence in the USA. Its diplomatic abilities seem to have collapsed.
The Solidarity Movement cannot and does not want to act on behalf of the government, but we believe our call for intensified political pressure to bring about policy change is for the benefit of all South Africans,” says Buys.
Furthermore, the Solidarity Movement has requested members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to recommend to the American President that South Africa remain a member of AGOA.
However, there is also a request to sustain the political pressure on Sout Africa to bring about a policy change.
A delegation of the Solidarity Movement, AfriForum and Solidarity today met with senior representatives of the Trump administration at the White House in Washington DC.
This delegation is currently meeting with senior government officials in the USA, and will, among other things ask that pressure be intensified on ANC leaders for policy change rather than suspending South Africa’s participation in AGOA.
The Solidarity Movement’s delegation to the White House was led by the chairperson of the Solidarity Movement Flip Buys, and included Kallie Kriel, AfriForum chief executive, Dr Dirk Hermann, Solidarity chief executive and Jaco Kleynhans, head of international liaison at the Solidarity Movement.
According to Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, the South African government’s lack of urgency to restore diplomatic relations with the USA is creating a growing crisis for South Africa.
Buys pointed out that the jobs of more than half a million workers with about 2 million dependents depend directly on South Africa’s participation in AGOA, and for this reason the Solidarity Movement feels so strongly that the US should not kick the country out of AGOA in September.
A research report on the importance of AGOA for ordinary South Africans was handed to senior government officials in Washington. The Movement also requested that humanitarian aid to South Africa, such as the PEPFAR programme not be stopped as this could harm vulnerable people in South Africa.
For this reason, we urge the US not to punish South Africa as a country if it has diplomatic differences with the SA government but to rather pressure ANC leaders to right what is wrong. We cannot allow it that ordinary South Africans suffer even more as a result of the mistakes of the ANC.
The Solidarity Movement’s task to act on behalf of ordinary South Africans is greatly impeded by the South African government’s persistent view that the diplomatic dispute is simply due to misunderstandings, and that they do not plan any policy changes despite the multiple crises the ANC-led government policies have landed the country in.
Our feedback from senior US government leaders is that the diplomatic disputes with South Africa have profound causes and are far more profound than being just a communication gap or “disinformation” as the SA government is claiming it to be.
The delegation of the Solidarity Movement also expressed its serious concerns about the consequences of the new Expropriation Act, racial laws, calls for violence against Afrikaners and attacks on Afrikaans schools such as the passing of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (BELA).
The delegation also pointed out that they recognise and respect South Africa’s sovereignty, but that the government cannot hide behind it when the human rights of a minority group are being disregarded or threatened by laws such as the BELA education legislation, the discriminatory racial dispensation or the Expropriation Act.
It is necessary that these matters be raised abroad because the government has shown by the BELA talks, its continued refusal to amend racial laws, and the signing of the Expropriation Act without consulting its GNU partners that they have shut the door to talks in good faith in South Africa.
The memorandum that was handed to the Trump administration is attached hereto.
We took note of Mr Trump’s Executive Order with regard to South-Africa in general and Afrikaners in particular.
His Order and the other statements of senior American officials place the spotlight on contentious issues in South Africa, like our foreign policy and the situation of Afrikaners as an indigenous cultural community. We welcome the concern of important Americans about our situation but believe the solution must be found in South Africa.
We reaffirm our firm commitment to the country and its people, although we differ with the ANC about the direction of the country, the many race laws that make us second class citizens, their treatment of the Afrikaans community with the Bela act, laws like the Expropriation act, and the blatant threats made by certain politicians towards Afrikaners.
However, we want to put on record the following:
• We did not accuse the government of large-scale race-based land grabs, or distribute false information in this regard;
• We did not and will not ask for sanctions against South-Africa, or that funds for vulnerable people be cut off by the US government;
• We explicitly asked senior US officials not to kick South-Africa out of the Agoa act, because of the suffering it will cause to farmers and their workers, and the livelihoods of workers in the motor and chemical industries;
• The Order of Mr Trump is the result of reckless policies of the ANC leadership that alienate a superpower, and not a so-called disinformation campaign from our side;
• It is furthermore a product of years of diplomatic neglect by South African diplomats in our engagements with the US at many different forums and on a wide range of issues
• We were not aware that Mr. Trump would issue this order
• We believe that it is not in the interests of South Africa if there is a deterioration in the relationship with the world’s largest economy and a big trade partner and donor of our country.
In the light of the latest developments, we will urgently request a meeting with President Ramaphosa, to address the differences between us and to find solutions to that. Secondly, I will also lead a delegation to the United States for discussions with White House representatives later the month, in order for us to put the situation in SA in context.
The G20 summit has brought international attention to South Africa, and this will continue throughout the year. If the ANC, as leading party in the Government of National Unity and thus the chair of the G20 summit, wants to be a global player, its international and domestic policies must align accordingly.
This includes ensuring that the ANC does not violate the constitutional settlement by attempting to downscale Afrikaans schools and mother-tongue education through legislation, or the racial dispensation that are incompatible with a constitutional democracy, a functioning state and a growing economy that can provide jobs for everyone.
The Solidarity Movement, including Solidarity and AfriForum, represents approximately 600,000 Afrikaner families and 2 million individuals.
Our message to Presidents Ramaphosa and Trump is that we want to solve our problems within South Africa but we also appreciate diplomatic pressure from important roleplayers like the US. We are willing to engage in honest discussions with both parties about the state of the country and our community, and we commit to conveying facts correctly and responsibly, as we have always done.
The U.S. should empower South Africans, including the civil society, private sector and political parties to engage with each other and international roleplayers with a simple focus of being a country that gives space to all its people, respects minority rights and is loyal to its international commitments on issues such as the opposition to racial discrimination and the improvement of human rights and dialogue.
The Solidarity Movement remains committed to dialogue and is open to cooperation. We welcome the political pressure that the U.S. is placing on the ANC but will take a stand against the withdrawal of aid. We support South Africa’s continued participation in AGOA.
Ordinary South Africans should not bear the cost of diplomatic disputes and the ANC’s reckless policies. The withdrawal of aid could have severe social consequences and lead to increased unemployment. However, any aid must be carefully evaluated and must also address the priorities of the Afrikaner community.
The solution is that international assistance to South Africa should continue, while Afrikaners receive practical support in their pursuit of cultural autonomy. We want to establish the conditions for Afrikaners to stay in South-Africa, in order for us to make a sustainable contribution towards the country and all its people. We did not come to Africa as Afrikaners. Centuries ago, our ancestors came here from various countries in Europe, but became Afrikaners here, long before the birth of South Africa as a country. Our language and culture are indigenous to Africa. We named ourselves, our language and many of our institutions after Africa. Afrikaners are a self-defined cultural community – a people – and not simply a language group or a racial grouping.
We emphasise that through Afrikaans we also have a bond through our common language with the majority of coloured (“bruin”) South Africans, as well as with a significant number of people from other South African communities. We respect these other Afrikaans cultural communities and will cooperate and have been cooperating with them in all appropriate issues.
Afrikaners are committed to South Africa and the continent. We may disagree with the ANC, but we love our country. As in any community, there are individuals who wish to emigrate, but repatriation of Afrikaners as refugees is not a solution for us.
We want to build a future in South Africa and have minimum living conditions that we will set and work towards.
If the international community helps us create an environment where Afrikaners can sustainably remain in South Africa, we can make a lasting contribution to the well-being of the country and all its people.
Our loyalty to the country is as steadfast as our legitimate pursuit of cultural freedom and the abolition of racial discrimination against us.
This commitment to our country and cultural freedom is outlined in the Afrikaner Declaration, which was signed and introduced last year along with community leaders.
The Solidarity Movement, specifically Solidarity and AfriForum, will immediately begin developing proposals to resolve disputes over expropriation and race-based policies. Further information will be announced soon.
International Perspective 3: From GNU to G20: What to keep an eye on in South Africa in 2025
Dear friends, acquaintances and interested parties abroad
In this third edition of our international newsletter we discuss the huge diplomatic mistakes the South African government made in 2024, the opportunities contained in a government of national unity, and what it all holds for 2025.
Kind regards
Jaco Kleynhans
Head: International Liaison
Solidarity Movement, South Africa
From GNU to G20: What to keep an eye on in South Africa in 2025
Introduction: After a year of contrasts, major uncertainty still exists regarding South Africa’s future
A year ago, few people would probably have predicted that in 2024, South Africa would have a broad coalition government, also known as a Government of National Unity (GNU), for the first time since the 1990s. The GNU was a direct result of the ANC’s extremely poor performance in the national elections on 29 May. This party’s support fell from 57,5% in 2019 to 40,2% in 2024. This decline was driven by a sharp drop in participation by traditional ANC supporters and the rise of former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which enjoyed massive support among Zulu voters in KwaZulu-Natal as well as in parts of Mpumalanga and Gauteng.
The ANC leadership had to choose between moving towards the political centre by working with more moderate parties, or forming a coalition government with its archenemies, the MK and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), both extreme left-wing splinter groups of the ANC. The latter option was unthinkable for the Ramaphosa camp in the ANC, partly because of faction fights within the ANC and the incompatibility of the Ramaphosa and Zuma camps, and partly because of the negative implications that a hard-left coalition government could have for South Africa’s economy and international standing.
The result was a government of national unity, or perhaps rather a broad coalition government consisting of ten parties, namely (in order of size in parliament) the ANC, the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the Patriotic Alliance (PA), the Freedom Front Plus (FF+), the United Democratic Movement (UDM), Rise Mzansi, Al Jama-ah, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and Good.
After more than six months of a GNU, it is clear that the GNU has given new hope to many South Africans, while also contributing to a slight improvement in South Africa’s international standing. The consensus is that the GNU should be given a fair chance. However, in recent months it also became clear that the ANC, especially in some areas such as economic policy, social policy and foreign affairs, has been unwilling to make concessions within the GNU. The party’s dominant role in these but also other areas, even those with ministers from other parties serving in the cabinet (such as Education and Agriculture), is an ever-growing challenge that could ultimately derail the GNU.
South Africans will likely go to the polls in a local election no later than September 2026. The influence of the GNU, tensions within the ANC, the role of MK (especially in diverting ANC support, but also how Zuma plays into faction fights within the ANC) and a series of challenges such as weak economic growth, unemployment, persistently high crime levels, civil disobedience, voter apathy and poor municipal service delivery, and even the total decay in towns across the country (with the exception of the Western Cape) create huge uncertainty in the run-up to the 2026 elections. All of this will play into important political decisions in 2025 as the ANC will try to prevent further losses in support in 2026.
At the end of 2024, South Africa is still a country facing huge challenges and even increasing crises. Hope for a GNU that must begin to show real results, or South Africa’s position as, for example, the chair of the G20 Summit in 2025, is for most South Africans not enough reason to approach the new year with optimism. Real results in combating corruption, improving fiscal discipline, achieving economic growth, creating jobs, combating crime, improving infrastructure and improving basic service delivery are urgently needed. In all these areas, the government has largely failed at national, provincial and local level in 2024, again with the exception of the Western Cape and a few other towns and cities in other provinces.
Pressure points that will determine South Africa’s direction in 2025
Economy
The South African economy shrank by 0,3% in the third quarter of 2024, despite most economists expecting slight growth. South Africa’s exports fell by 3,7% during the same period. Therefore, it appears that 2024 has once again been a year of almost no economic growth for the country, while the population and unemployment continue to rise. For South Africa to get its fiscal house in order, high economic growth would be essential.
South Africa’s budget deficit also increased by more than expected in 2024. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana recently announced that the budget deficit had risen to 5% of national output, while the expectation in February was still 4,5%. South Africa’s public debt, and the cost of financing it, continues to rise, while the economy is barely growing, with the growth forecast for 2025 expected to be 1,7% at best.
There are many reasons for the poor economic growth of the past decade or so. The most significant are certainly huge infrastructure problems and in particular electricity supply problems (which have largely been resolved), transport problems (rail transport and ports remain in chaos while the country’s road network continues to deteriorate), corruption, low business confidence (due to overregulation, populist political statements, policy uncertainty and weak political leadership), a massive loss of foreign investment, crime, poor education leading to skills shortages and skills mismatches, and growing concerns over instability in Southern Africa.
According to the Reserve Bank, South Africa’s positive net international investment position (IIP) has declined from a revised R2 424 billion at the end of March 2024 to R2 052 billion at the end of June 2024. In recent years there has been a massive withdrawal by investors, but also by large overseas companies, from the South African economy. During 2024, Shell, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Rolex, AngloGold Ashanti, TotalEnergies and BP all announced that they would withdraw from South Africa or that they had already begun to withdraw.
The consequences are persistently high unemployment (the official rate currently stands at 32,1%, with unemployment exceeding 40% if a broader definition is applied that includes discouraged job seekers). The consequences of persistently high unemployment are growing poverty, pressure on the welfare state (almost 28 million South Africans, close to 50% of the population, receive social grants every month) and increasing social unrest. The situation is becoming increasingly volatile with enormous political risks. The ANC’s loss of support during 2024 was a direct result of this poor economic performance. If the GNU cannot achieve better economic growth, it could lead to further growth in support for extreme left-wing populist parties such as the EFF and MK.
In 2025, it will be essential for the government to bring its spending under control without raising taxes. Threats of possible tax increases are contributing to a continued outflow of expertise from the country. South Africa currently has only 7,4 million individuals who pay income tax, and the burden on this small group of taxpayers is already too high. The budget speech in February 2025 will be crucial.
The ANC recently announced that it intends to proceed with plans to amend the South African Constitution to allow for expropriation of property without compensation. This would be a huge setback for property rights in South Africa and would have even more adverse consequences for the economy. The government’s plans to proceed with the introduction of an unaffordable National Health Insurance scheme also do not bode well. Apart from the economic consequences, these issues will also lead to more tension within the GNU.
The workings of the GNU
The Government of National Unity is still in its infancy, even though most stakeholders realise the urgency for clear results. The challenges for the GNU are primarily the ANC’s position that, as the largest party in the GNU, it can still dominate the determination of government policy. Therefore, the way the ANC implements policies that most other parties in the GNU disagree with is creating increasing tension. This could lead to a major crisis in 2025 and may even bring an end to the GNU.
One example is the way in which the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (the BELA Act) – a reform of the education system that will lead to greater centralisation of education and, in particular, a huge loss of mother tongue education – was implemented. The National Health Insurance Act (NHI), expropriation without compensation and other controversial policies clearly aimed at appeasing the ANC’s left-wing factions, who are too closely aligned to parties such as MK and the EFF, could pose the greatest threats to the GNU in 2025.
Already there are clear signs of improved service delivery, a more focused effort to combat corruption, and improved systems, infrastructure and management capacity in several government departments, especially those with ministers from the DA, IFP, PA and FF+. However, if the ANC continues to adjust fiscal policy, foreign policy and social policy without any concessions to the other parties in the GNU in an attempt to prevent further loss of support from the left wing of the party, this could lead to the end of the GNU, which could result in a massive crisis for South Africa.
A large majority of South Africans were and still are convinced that the GNU was the best option on the table after the general election. However, the success of the GNU has been extremely limited so far, and ongoing disputes are creating increasing risks to its sustainability.
It is essential that all parties in the GNU, including the ANC, present it as the best option for all of South Africa. Voter confidence in the GNU is crucial in countering populist resistance, which is also stoking division within the GNU. However, it is also necessary that the ANC should not view the GNU merely as a short-term project during which the party’s majority position must be restored. The way in which various left-wing policies have been forcefully pushed through in recent months indicates that ideology and party unity are too often more important to Ramaphosa and the ANC’s national leadership than the success of the GNU. This urgently needs to change.
Divisions within the ANC and Ramaphosa leadership
The ANC has been losing support for a decade. The bulk of this loss of support is simply due to voters not going to vote. In 2014, more than 73% of registered voters voted. This dropped to 66% in 2019 and to 58% in 2024. If one takes into account that many young people who become eligible to vote simply do not register to vote, the total participation rate of eligible voters is as low as 40%.
In many ways the ANC is following a similar path to other so-called liberation movements in Africa, such as Swapo in Namibia, Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe and Frelimo in Mozambique. In all of these cases, political power has often been accompanied by growing corruption, cadre deployment, ideological clamour and ultimately a growing rift with voters.
For the ANC, there should be only one solution to its problems and that is the establishment of a better, cleaner government that delivers services, develops infrastructure, deals effectively with the crime situation and promotes economic growth.
Seven years after Cyril Ramaphosa became president of the ANC, he is still failing to effectively control the party. Even after Zuma formed his new party, the MK Party, and took a portion of the ANC’s Zulu wing with him, the party remains deeply divided with various factions constantly undermining each other. However, in the run-up to the party’s next National Conference in December 2027, where a new president will also be elected, it seems increasingly likely that the faction fighting will intensify.
Ramaphosa’s inability to leverage his political capital and consolidate his support within the party is unfortunately also playing out within the government with constant indecision or concessions to the party’s more left-wing factions, often resulting in poor policy.
Ramaphosa is convinced that the GNU, and the levels of trust that voters continue to place in it, coupled with his international standing, especially now as chair of the 2025 G20 Summit, will carry him through the next year or so. However, at a time when the ANC needs a firm leader with the ability to admonish political bullies within the party, such as Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, Ramaphosa is not displaying the necessary strength of character. The consequence will probably be a deepening of divisions in the run-up to the 2026 municipal elections.
Global power struggle, Trump’s America, G20 Summit and foreign relations
It is often clear that President Ramaphosa enjoys being active on the international stage more than he does dealing with enormous domestic challenges. When he attends international summits and meetings and can meet with world leaders, he is clearly more comfortable than when he has to help steer a complex government in a complex country with vast challenges in a better direction.
Since 1994, South Africa’s foreign policy has been strongly based on non-alignment. During the Mandela and Mbeki years, efforts were made to achieve exactly that. On 26 March 1998, Bill Clinton was not only the first US president to visit South Africa; he was also the first US president to address the South African parliament. In his speech, he particularly referred to “America’s profound and pragmatic stake in South Africa’s success”. In his speech, Clinton emphasised the USA’s economic and strategic need to work with South Africa.
Directly arising from Clinton’s 1998 visit to Africa, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was drafted in the US Congress and passed by Republicans and Democrats in May 2000, shortly before Clinton’s departure from the White House. Many of the Congressmen were present in the South African parliament when Clinton delivered his speech on 26 March 1998.
After AGOA, huge efforts and billions of US dollars were also invested in Africa in the fight against HIV, in peacekeeping operations and in countering terrorism in the Sahel region and in East Africa.
However, the goodwill between the US and South Africa in the first 15 years after 1994 gave way to increasing American scepticism, weak South African foreign policy, growing influence in South African politics from China, Russia and Iran, and ultimately a complete loss of trust in South Africa over the next 15 years.
Several events of the past three years are well known, as is the fact that South Africa’s words of non-alignment and deeds of friendship with Russia, China, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, to name just a few problematic friendships, have led to challenges in the country’s relationship with the West.
AGOA is due to be renewed or replaced in 2025. Will South Africa still be able to benefit from this by January 2026? Will foreign investors’ confidence in South Africa be restored, which could lead to renewed investment in South Africa’s economy? Will South Africa take advantage of the opportunities that hosting the G20 Summit presents for the country?
The last state visit by a US president to South Africa was Barack Obama’s visit in 2013. Twelve years later, Donald Trump is expected to attend the G20 Summit in Johannesburg in November 2025. This holds huge risks and opportunities. Will Ramaphosa be able to manage the risks and seize the opportunities?
In recent years, South Africa has too often found itself caught in the global power struggle between parties from the developed West and parties from the developing Global South. The ANC’s ideological bias has been evident in its refusal to condemn Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, by conducting a joint naval exercise with China and Russia off South Africa’s east coast, by accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians at the International Court of Justice and by constantly courting countries like Iran. These kinds of missteps simply cannot be repeated in 2025.
South Africa remains in an excellent position to take a truly non-aligned position. The country’s geographical distance from conflict areas in the global power struggle and its status as a democracy and the most industrialised and best developed country in Africa, still hold a wealth of opportunities.
Unfortunately, for the past six months South Africa’s foreign policy has been controlled exclusively by the ANC, with no concessions to other parties in the GNU. The ANC views the conduct of foreign policy as its sole prerogative. This likely means that the words and actions of Ramaphosa and the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ronald Lamola, on non-alignment will continue to leave too much room for interpretation.
Conclusions
After a disastrous 15 years of almost no economic growth, a loss of social cohesion in a diverse and complex country, widespread corruption, the decay of infrastructure and service delivery, a loss of global influence and credibility, some of the highest crime rates in the world and a country heading towards an abyss of government failure and anarchy, 2024 surprisingly was a year of new hope. The ANC’s loss of political support and the birth of the GNU, the end of load shedding, renewed government success at provincial and local levels in the Western Cape, and numerous community initiatives across South Africa that, on their own, have attempted to tackle problems with crime, decaying infrastructure and other challenges, all indicate that South Africa can still be steered into a new and better direction.
This requires a greater devolution of powers to provincial and local governments. Greater private initiatives and even the privatisation of many state-owned enterprises become necessary in a time of fiscal crisis. The national government must be reduced, corruption must be eradicated and efficiency in all government departments must be a priority.
Greater respect for and involvement of minorities is essential. Although 11% of South Africans have Afrikaans as their mother tongue, only 5% of public schools are still Afrikaans-language schools. The government’s current attempt to make these schools multilingual and eventually English must be stopped. The language and cultural rights of all ethnic groups in South Africa must be respected.
Specialist units must be established to investigate the ongoing crime crisis, including farm attacks and farm murders, cash-in-transit robberies and gang violence, to highlight just three of the most serious crises. The fact that South Africa has the highest rate of rapes per capita in the world must be declared a national disgrace. The enormous challenges involved in prosecuting criminals must be resolved.
In terms of foreign policy, South Africa will need to seize the opportunities presented in 2025. While the relationship with the US urgently needs to be restored, a healthy balance must be found between ties with the West and fast-growing economies in the Global South. It does not have to be one or the other.
South Africa cannot condemn Israel for its actions in Gaza and, at the same time, refuse to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. South Africa’s silence on human rights violations in Sudan, Mozambique and Zimbabwe is disgraceful. Selective morality has never been a sustainable foreign policy.
The South African economy is highly dependent on exports and foreign investment and is strongly affected by international events due to factors such as the volatility of the South African currency, South Africa’s dependence on oil and gas imports and the important role mineral exports continue to play in the South African economy. As an open economy with high global exposure, it is important for South Africa to inspire global trust, build credibility and project an image of stability. In this, the country has increasingly failed over the past fifteen years. Substantial progress will need to be made in 2025.
Afrikaners as a minority in South Africa in 2025
Afrikaners are deeply committed to South Africa and the future of the country. Two Afrikaners currently serve as ministers in the Government of National Unity, namely in the portfolios of Correctional Services (Pieter Groenewald) and Home Affairs (Leon Schreiber).
Afrikaners are very strongly connected to the land, communities, towns, cities, institutions, colours, flavours, languages and cultures of South Africa. Afrikaners as a minority of less than 5% of the population contribute overwhelmingly to creating solutions to economic challenges (through small businesses), food security (through commercial agriculture), rural safety (through hundreds of neighbourhood watches staffed by thousands of trained volunteers), educational issues (through their own, private training institutions) and many other daily problems in South Africa.
Today, there are 142 laws in South Africa that require racial classification, prescribe racial discrimination, prescribe racial quotas, or in some way enable discrimination against minorities. The consequence is that people who should be helping to build South Africa are emigrating to other countries. Around 20% of Afrikaners already live permanently or temporarily abroad. The loss of businesses closing down, farms no longer being farmed, investments leaving the country, skills being lost, and especially people with a love for South Africa turning their backs on the country is enormous and poses many risks for South Africa.
The Solidarity Movement is the largest civil society group of organisations in South Africa, representing mainly, but not exclusively, Afrikaner families across South Africa. The Movement is committed to working with other communities in South Africa and is already working in cooperation with many other ethnic groups in the development of projects in agriculture, education and training, security and economic development.
Ultimately, the future of South Africa will be determined by the people of South Africa, but better governance, an informed international community, and sympathetic individuals and organisations can all contribute to crafting a new, better roadmap for the South Africa of the future. This process must be accelerated in 2025. If this does not happen, the risks for South Africa will simply be too great.
Die Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge (FAK) is reeds in 1929 gestig. Vandag is die FAK steeds dié organisasie wat jou toelaat om kreatief te wees in jou taal en kultuur. Die FAK is ’n toekomsgerigte kultuurorganisasie wat ’n tuiste vir die Afrikaanse taal en kultuur bied en die trotse Afrikanergeskiedenis positief bevorder.
Solidariteit Helpende Hand fokus op maatskaplike welstand en dié organisasie se groter visie is om oplossings vir die hantering van Afrikanerarmoede te vind.
Solidariteit Helpende Hand se roeping is om armoede deur middel van gemeenskapsontwikkeling op te los. Solidariteit Helpende Hand glo dat mense ʼn verantwoordelikheid teenoor mekaar en teenoor die gemeenskap het.
Solidariteit Helpende Hand is geskoei op die idees van die Afrikaner-Helpmekaarbeweging van 1949 met ʼn besondere fokus op “help”, “saam” en “ons.”
AfriForumTV is ʼn digitale platform wat aanlyn en gratis is en visuele inhoud aan lede en nielede bied. Intekenaars kan verskeie kanale in die gemak van hul eie huis op hul televisiestel, rekenaar of selfoon verken deur van die AfriForumTV-app gebruik te maak. AfriForumTV is nóg ʼn kommunikasiestrategie om die publiek bewus te maak van AfriForum se nuus en gebeure, maar ook om vermaak deur films en fiksie- en realiteitsreekse te bied. Hierdie inhoud gaan verskaf word deur AfriForumTV self, instellings binne die Solidariteit Beweging en eksterne inhoudverskaffers.
AfriForum Uitgewers (voorheen bekend as Kraal Uitgewers) is die trotse uitgewershuis van die Solidariteit Beweging en is die tuiste van Afrikaanse niefiksie-, Afrikanergeskiedenis- én prima Afrikaanse produkte. Dié uitgewer het onlangs sy fokus verskuif en gaan voortaan slegs interne publikasies van die Solidariteit Beweging publiseer.
AfriForum Jeug is die amptelike jeugafdeling van AfriForum, die burgerregte-inisiatief wat deel van die Solidariteit Beweging vorm. AfriForum Jeug berus op Christelike beginsels en ons doel is om selfstandigheid onder jong Afrikaners te bevorder en die realiteite in Suid-Afrika te beïnvloed deur veldtogte aan te pak en aktief vir jongmense se burgerregte standpunt in te neem.
De Goede Hoop is ʼn moderne, privaat Afrikaanse studentekoshuis met hoë standaarde. Dit is in Pretoria geleë.
De Goede Hoop bied ʼn tuiste vir dinamiese studente met Christelike waardes en ʼn passie vir Afrikaans; ʼn tuiste waar jy as jongmens in gesonde studentetradisies kan deel en jou studentwees met selfvertroue in Afrikaans kan uitleef.
DIE HELPENDE HAND STUDIETRUST (HHST) is ʼn inisiatief van Solidariteit Helpende Hand en is ʼn geregistreerde openbare weldaadsorganisasie wat behoeftige Afrikaanse studente se studie moontlik maak deur middel van rentevrye studielenings.
Die HHST administreer tans meer as 200 onafhanklike studiefondse namens verskeie donateurs en het reeds meer as 6 300 behoeftige studente se studie moontlik gemaak met ʼn totaal van R238 miljoen se studiehulp wat verleen is.
Solidariteit se sentrum vir voortgesette leer is ʼn opleidingsinstelling wat voortgesette professionele ontwikkeling vir professionele persone aanbied. S-leer het ten doel om werkendes met die bereiking van hul loopbaandoelwitte by te staan deur die aanbieding van seminare, kortkursusse, gespreksgeleenthede en e-leer waarin relevante temas aangebied en bespreek word.
Solidariteit Jeug berei jongmense voor vir die arbeidsmark, staan op vir hul belange en skakel hulle in by die Netwerk van Werk. Solidariteit Jeug is ʼn instrument om jongmense te help met loopbaankeuses en is ʼn tuiskomplek vir jongmense.
Solidariteit Regsfonds
ʼn Fonds om die onregmatige toepassing van regstellende aksie teen te staan.
Solidariteit Boufonds
ʼn Fonds wat spesifiek ten doel het om Solidariteit se opleidingsinstellings te bou.
SFD is ʼn gemagtigde finansiëledienstemaatskappy wat deel is van die Solidariteit Beweging. Die instelling se visie is om die toekomstige finansiële welstand, finansiële sekerheid en volhoubaarheid van Afrikaanse individue en ondernemings te bevorder. SFD doen dit deur middel van mededingende finansiële dienste en produkte, in Afrikaans en met uitnemende diens vir ʼn groter doel aan te bied.
Die Gemeenskapstrukture-afdeling bestaan tans uit twee mediese ondersteuningsprojekte en drie gemeenskapsentrums, naamlik Ons Plek in die Strand, Derdepoort en Volksrust. Die drie gemeenskapsentrums is gestig om veilige kleuter- en/of naskoolversorging in die onderskeie gemeenskappe beskikbaar te stel. Tans akkommodeer die gemeenskapsentrums altesaam 158 kinders in die onderskeie naskoolsentrums, terwyl Ons Plek in die Strand 9 kleuters en Ons Plek in Volksrust 16 kleuters in die kleuterskool het.
Die Solidariteit Skoleondersteuningsentrum (SOS) se visie is om die toekoms van Christelike, Afrikaanse onderwys te (help) verseker deur gehalte onderrig wat reeds bestaan in stand te (help) hou, én waar nodig nuut te (help) bou.
Die SOS se doel is om elke skool in ons land waar onderrig in Afrikaans aangebied word, by te staan om in die toekoms steeds onderrig van wêreldgehalte te bly bied en wat tred hou met die nuutste navorsing en internasionale beste praktyke.
Sol-Tech is ʼn geakkrediteerde, privaat beroepsopleidingskollege wat op Christelike waardes gefundeer is en Afrikaans as onderrigmedium gebruik.
Sol-Tech fokus op beroepsopleiding wat tot die verwerwing van nasionaal erkende, bruikbare kwalifikasies lei. Sol-Tech het dus ten doel om jongmense se toekomsdrome met betrekking tot loopbaanontwikkeling deur doelspesifieke opleiding te verwesenlik.
Akademia is ’n Christelike hoëronderwysinstelling wat op ’n oop, onbevange en kritiese wyse ’n leidinggewende rol binne die hedendaagse universiteitswese speel.
Akademia streef daarna om ʼn akademiese tuiste te bied waar sowel die denke as die hart gevorm word met die oog op ʼn betekenisvolle en vrye toekoms.
AfriForum Uitgewers (previously known as Kraal Uitgewers) is the proud publishing house of the Solidarity Movement and is the home of Afrikaans non-fiction, products related to the Afrikaner’s history, as well as other prime Afrikaans products. The publisher recently shifted its focus and will only publish internal publications of the Solidarity Movement from now on.
Maroela Media is ʼn Afrikaanse internetkuierplek waar jy alles kan lees oor dit wat in jou wêreld saak maak – of jy nou in Suid-Afrika bly of iewers anders woon en deel van die Afrikaanse Maroela-gemeenskap wil wees. Maroela Media se Christelike karakter vorm die kern van sy redaksionele beleid.
Kanton Beleggingsmaatskappy
Kanton is ʼn beleggingsmaatskappy vir eiendom wat deur die Solidariteit Beweging gestig is. Die eiendomme van die Solidariteit Beweging dien as basis van die portefeulje wat verder deur ontwikkeling uitgebrei sal word.
Kanton is ʼn vennootskap tussen kultuur en kapitaal en fokus daarop om volhoubare eiendomsoplossings aan instellings in die Afrikaanse gemeenskap teen ʼn goeie opbrengs te voorsien sodat hulle hul doelwitte kan bereik.
Wolkskool is ʼn produk van die Skoleondersteuningsentrum (SOS), ʼn niewinsgewende organisasie met ʼn span onderwyskundiges wat ten doel het om gehalte- Afrikaanse onderrig te help verseker. Wolkskool bied ʼn platform waar leerders 24-uur toegang tot video-lesse, vraestelle, werkkaarte met memorandums en aanlyn assessering kan kry.
Die Begrond Instituut is ʼn Christelike navorsingsinstituut wat die Afrikaanse taal en kultuur gemeenskap bystaan om Bybelse antwoorde op belangrike lewensvrae te kry.
Ons Winkels is Solidariteit Helpende Hand se skenkingswinkels. Daar is bykans 120 winkels landwyd waar lede van die publiek skenkings van tweedehandse goedere – meubels, kombuisware, linne en klere – kan maak. Die winkels ontvang die skenkings en verkoop goeie kwaliteit items teen bekostigbare pryse aan die publiek.
AfriForum is ʼn burgerregte-organisasie wat Afrikaners, Afrikaanssprekende mense en ander minderheidsgroepe in Suid-Afrika mobiliseer en hul regte beskerm.
AfriForum is ʼn nieregeringsorganisasie wat as ʼn niewinsgewende onderneming geregistreer is met die doel om minderhede se regte te beskerm. Terwyl die organisasie volgens die internasionaal erkende beginsel van minderheidsbeskerming funksioneer, fokus AfriForum spesifiek op die regte van Afrikaners as ʼn gemeenskap wat aan die suidpunt van die vasteland woon. Lidmaatskap is nie eksklusief nie en enige persoon wat hom of haar met die inhoud van die organisasies se Burgerregte-manifes vereenselwig, kan by AfriForum aansluit.
