USA Archives - Solidariteit Beweging

The ANC must stop its ongoing disinformation now

Posted on March 28, 2025March 28, 2025 by anneke

The ongoing false allegations that Solidarity and AfriForum are spreading misinformation abroad are nothing but disinformation and an attempt to make us the scapegoat for the ANC’s mistakes.

The time has come for the ANC to accept responsibility for the diplomatic crisis with the US the country has been plunged into due to the party’s reckless policies, and the ANC must stop blaming Solidarity and AfriForum for it.

Should the US kick South Africa out of the AGOA agreement, the blame must be laid squarely at the door of the Ramaphosa government. Solidarity and AfriForum’s attempts over many years, and by using authoritative research to convince the US to retain South Africa as an AGOA beneficiary are being sabotaged time and again by the ANC’s own policies and actions.

Genocide and sanctions

We want to make it clear that we have never made allegations of a “genocide” of white people in South Africa. We have not called for sanctions against South Africa. We have not requested that any funds to South Africa be cut off by the US. We have explicitly asked that South Africa not be kicked out of AGOA because it would cost thousands of South Africans their jobs. As patriotic South-Africans, we have called on the US not to punish the people of South Africa when the Trump administration is angry with the ANC.

We are positive South African patriots who love the country and its people, even if we do not agree with the ANC’s policies and actions. Although we warned about the dangers of the Expropriation Act, we have not presented allegations to the US government that large-scale expropriation without compensation is taking place in South Africa.

Last year, the Solidarity Movement was part of a group of approximately two million Afrikaners who supported a declaration in which we emphasised our loyalty to the country and its people, at the same time making suggestions about the conditions Afrikaners need to remain in the country in order to make a lasting contribution towards South Africa. The ANC ignored these constructive suggestions.

South African solutions

We reject the ANC’s hypocritical statements that we should solve our problems internally in South Africa rather than to complain about them abroad. The ANC has clearly demonstrated with the BELA negotiations that they are not prepared to respect the constitutional provision for Afrikaans education Their refusal to find solutions in good faith to fundamental issues that profoundly affect our language and culture leaves us with no choice but to internationalise our cause.

We do not ask anyone’s permission to defend our fundamental human rights and legitimate interests because the ANC has proven time and again that these rights and interests cannot be entrusted to them.

We will continue to do so in a factual and balanced manner so as not to cause harm to the country, unlike the ANC that continues to mismanage the country, continues to allow corruption to flourish and continues to further exacerbate unemployment in the country.

Serious consequences for ordinary South Africans if US downsizes its embassy and closes consulates

Posted on March 26, 2025 by anneke

Source: Solidarity

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.

Diplomatic differences between the USA and SA run deeper than a ‘misunderstanding’

Posted on February 25, 2025February 26, 2025 by anneke

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.

Afrikaner Foundation, AfriForum raise support in USA

Posted on July 30, 2024July 30, 2024 by anneke

Source: Maroela Media

The international community is increasingly becoming aware of the challenges confronting minorities such as the Afrikaners in South Africa, as well as the kind of solutions the institutions of the Solidarity Movement come up with to address these challenges. This is the overall observation of the representatives of the Afrikaner Foundation and AfriForum who have recently returned from a support-raising tour to the USA.

During this visit, Ernst Roux, executive director of the Afrikaner Foundation, and Ernst van Zyl, head of public relations at AfriForum, participated in various conferences, functions and networking discussions. Two highlights of the visit were the NatCon conference in Washington, D.C. (also known as NatCon 4), at which Roets was a speaker, and the launch of the Afrikaner Foundation in New York at an event hosted by the New York Young Republicans. On both occasions Roets referred to the South African government’s reckless policy framework and the solutions that Afrikaners come up with under these circumstances to create a free, safe and prosperous future at the southern tip of Africa. In this regard, the emphasis fell on the establishment of a network of community institutions.

Ernst Roets at an event of the New York Young Republicans

Roets stated that it is necessary to bring the kinds of problems that minorities such as the Afrikaners in South Africa are confronted with to the attention of the international community, especially because there has been a perception for some time that the South African political dispensation has become a kind of gold standard that should be followed by the rest of the world, while the opposite is true in many respects. “However, it is far more important to talk about solutions than to talk about problems. We have experienced that it is especially through our approach to solutions and our optimism about the future that Afrikaners are being rediscovered by the international community, but in the Western world in particular,” he added.

Van Zyl said the sincere interest in and admiration for Afrikaners’ state-resistant solutions have increased dramatically abroad, especially among Americans and Europeans. “The saying ‘’n boer maak ‘n plan’ (which literally means a farmer makes a plan) has expanded from being a local saying about Afrikaners’ ability to come up with a plan for everything, to an international saying. It is encouraging to know that our successes and what we are building not only inspire and give our people in South Africa hope, but also do so for people abroad,” Van Zyl concluded.

The Afrikaner Foundation is a new institution in the broader Solidarity Movement and is focused on mobilising international support.