SOWETAN SAYS | Let's reject divisive right-wing agenda

The latest visit by AfriForum and Solidarity to the US where they met with senior representatives of President Donald Trump’s administration demonstrates the two organisations' determination to continue with their disinformation campaign against SA even when it has become clear to them that this is harmful to the country’s population as a whole.

The two organisations, one a right-wing political platform that is often wrongly labelled a “civil rights” organisation, and the other a trade union that has its roots in apartheid SA where it exclusively represented the interests of white workers, are not even listening to the very Afrikaans community they claim to represent. The Afrikaans community has generally rejected their characterisation of SA.

It is no surprise, however, that despite local opposition, they have been emboldened to continue with their campaign – painting an attempt by the state to correct the racial imbalances inherited from apartheid as “anti-Afrikaner” and “racist”. This is because Trump’s return to power appears to have given impetus to many right-wing groupings around the world to launch attacks on policies aimed at promoting diversity, inclusion and equality.

Although the South African chapter of this global right-wing movement recognises that it cannot reverse majority rule at home, it hopes to use its access to the most powerful government office in the world to browbeat SA into abandoning policies that seek to bring about equality among its citizens.

Hence the two organisations’ demand, in their meeting with Trump representatives, that Pretoria be forced to scrap legislation aimed at preventing the exclusion of pupils from public schools on the basis of language, and that the recently enacted Expropriation Act be revised.

In line with unsuccessful demands by conservative white parties during the negotiations in the 1990s, the two organisations also told the Americans that they want the government to “enter into a cultural agreement with Afrikaners”, as if this section of our society has special privileges that are different to all other groupings that make up the country.

However, their purpose is not enough. The question is, what is the rest of SA doing to counter this retrogressive campaign? It is high time the rest of us spoke up in defence of the society envisaged in our constitution.

Trump and his supporters in the US may be in the ascendency, but they certainly do not enjoy universal support. South Africans of goodwill from across the political spectrum need to start searching for allies within the US – be they in the political parties, business, civil society or religious organisations – in order to be able to push back.

One day Trump will be out of office and SA and the US would still have to have a relationship.