Our government, with all its flaws, has represented us well on the international stage. This week, we are rolling out the red carpet for world leaders – bar one, US President Donald Trump.
Of course, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are also not here, but both Russia and China will be represented at the G20 Leaders’ Summit this weekend. Trump, on the other hand, has decided that the US will miss the whole jamboree.
This decision has created a minor crisis, as President Cyril Ramaphosa was supposed to hand over the presidency to Trump or any US representative. It emerged on Wednesday that, in a bizarre move, Washington wants Johannesburg to become a mere talk shop and not adopt any declarations in Trump’s absence.
Not enough white opinion-makers have spoken out against this attack on our country.
— Sibongakonke Shoba, Sowetan editor
The South African government responded with a hot klap, telling the White House that the US cannot dictate what happens at an event they chose to boycott. It is commendable that Ramaphosa’s government has put its foot down in the face of bullying from the US.
Trump’s reasons for boycotting the event are ridiculous, to be polite. On Wednesday evening, he repeated the lie that SA is presiding over a genocide of white Afrikaners.
He has also been spreading mistruths about the existence of race-based policies that target and discriminate against the white community. The ANC and our government have been forthright in debunking Trump’s claims. But not enough white opinion-makers have come forward to dispel these fabricated claims.
A few white patriots, including journalists and commentators, have come forward to dispel the “white genocide” and “142 race laws” fake news. This includes a group of academics, who go by the name “Not in Our Name”, including Prof Pierre de Vos, Max du Preez and others, who wrote an open letter distancing themselves from the AfriForum campaign.
But not enough white opinion-makers have spoken out against this attack on our country.
We all know who planted this canard in Trump’s mind: those who yearn for the “good old days” of apartheid, under the banner of AfriForum and trade union Solidarity.
The claim that white people are more affected by criminal acts in the country is not only a mistaken belief but also a manufactured lie designed to invoke the emotions of white racists across the globe.
The argument that black economic empowerment, affirmative action and other transformative laws are racist is simply an attempt to protect the privilege of white people.
This is part of a broader strategy to stop transformation in its tracks, retain the status quo, and slowly return this country to the times when black citizens carried an inferior societal status compared to their white counterparts.
The ANC’s government of national unity partners, including the DA, have not taken up the campaign to counter the lies spread by AfriForum and Trump.
Even their leader, John Steenhuisen, made a poor attempt during that famous Oval Office meeting earlier this year. His contribution suggested that the delegation led by Ramaphosa were “better blacks” compared to Julius Malema. But during his speech in that room, he never, not even once, told Trump that the claim of white genocide was a product of Ernst Roets’ creative mind.
The less said about the white golfers who were in that room, the better; they painted this country as a slaughterhouse of white farmers. Why are our white counterparts so reluctant to publicly tell the truth?
Is the truth an inconvenience to their fears, dreams and fantasies? Do they believe that white Afrikaners are victims of a white genocide? What do they say when they meet around the braai behind the high walls? Are we all on the same page in terms of the constitutional obligation to reverse the inequalities of the past?
It is important for citizens to have this conversation so we can know where we stand to carve a way forward. Is the ANC, especially Ramaphosa, comfortable being surrounded by coalition partners who don’t see it necessary to defend their government against a calculated campaign to tarnish the image of the country?
In fact, in the aftermath of the Oval Office meeting, Freedom Front Plus – a partner in the GNU – released a statement hailing Trump “for revealing the truth” about what is happening in SA.
“The world knows that South Africa is a country where Afrikaners and other minorities are bullied, oppressed and marginalised by race-based legislation,” read a statement from Freedom Front Plus a day after the meeting.
This demonstrates that it is not only Roest and his friends at AfriForum who believe Trump is right about SA; even Ramaphosa harbours such individuals in his government.
Sowetan