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How South Africa can Make America Great Again

Carl Lindemann
By Carl Lindemann
9 Feb 2025
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Under Apartheid America, there’s a vast pool of talented, educated people with ample resources looking for a place to go. They will be a valuable asset wherever they land, and other nations are already finding ways to attract them. Why not South Africa?

As a patriotic American living in South Africa, having apartheid-era throwbacks bring a neo-apartheid minority rule to my country is grotesque. Given how America helped end that nightmare here, is there some way to return the favour?

That seems unlikely given the ongoing and increasing assault. The harm inflicted with the end of USAID without notice, the insult of pulling out of the upcoming G20 conference led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, and laughably granting refugee status to rescue supposedly oppressed white South Africans are just a smokescreen.

South African-born Joel Pollak, rumoured to be the pick for US ambassador, has outlined the impossible demands coming. South Africa must reject China and embrace Israel or face dire economic consequences. Those are non-starters for this non-aligned nation. Unfortunately, non-alignment is as inexplicable to Donald Trump’s polarised worldview as being nonbinary.

This ignorance promises hard times ahead.

Fortunately, the nature of the problem offers a solution. Now the US has abandoned its role as the champion of human rights and diverse democracy. South Africa must claim it. How to take the laurels?

First, call out what everyone already knows, namely that Trump’s regime has no claim to the values that once made America great. Add to that what you would offer to an old friend taken gravely ill – the hope that they get better soon!

The fundamental principle is to confront but not escalate the conflict. If whoever Trump sends as ambassador is more troll than diplomat, acknowledge their inappropriateness. If they persist in troll-like behaviour, do not normalise this. If Trump and his minions insist on escalation, so be it.

That just raises questions for all the world to answer like: What has America become? How can this neo-apartheid regime be legitimate? How long can it last?

The more outrageous and inappropriate the behaviour, the clearer the call for the world to stand against Apartheid America and for post-apartheid South Africa. That would also include a majority of Americans.

What kind of support could they provide?


Even if the Trump regime has no interest in diverse democracy, most Americans do. Many had thoughts about voting with their feet and moving overseas even before the crazy talk about “owning” Gaza, Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal. Now, the LGBTQIA+ community is under assault and seeking safe harbour. Soon, women will be desperate for options as they are completely stripped of their reproductive rights. How long before independent media are driven out? When will climate activists come into the crosshairs?

There’s a long list of those who will find Apartheid America’s minority rule intolerable. While richly diverse, they share the same convictions Ramaphosa expressed in the State of the Nation address:

“We stand for peace and justice, for equality and solidarity. We stand for non-racialism and democracy, for tolerance and compassion. We stand for equal rights for women, for persons with disability and for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. We stand for our shared humanity, not for the survival of the fittest.”

This all adds up to a vast pool of talented, educated people with ample resources looking for a place to go. They will be a valuable asset wherever they land, and other nations are already finding ways to attract them.

Why not South Africa?

This isn’t about an influx of tourists or digital nomads. These are people who share the dream of diverse democracy and are eager to work for it. Imagine what it would mean to have thousands of such volunteers serving in NGOs across the nation to bolster civil society.

This grassroots support would help make up for the loss of USAID. More than that, what could be a greater rebuke of Trump’s bullying than to see such an exodus? They vastly outnumber those who would leave their beloved home to take up Trump’s asylum offer. Perhaps South Africa should offer similar status for American citizens who actually qualify under the United Nations refugee convention and protocol.  

In time, after the MAGA moment inevitably passes, many will go home. They’ll use the experience and understanding they’re gained to help heal America from the damage now being done. It is a karmic turn for South Africa to support American freedom a generation after receiving this same benefit.

What of those who stay? Such politically motivated immigration hearkens back to when tens of thousands of Americans fled to Canada, resisting the Vietnam War. In the decades since, they’ve proven to be the proverbial gift that keeps on giving.

All this comes at an especially opportune moment. There’s a sea change under way. The generation that fought and won freedom is set to hand the reigns to the rising generation born in it. The advent of the government of national unity is just the beginning of a transformation that will revitalise faded visions of the Rainbow Nation. Those fleeing here from Apartheid America may be just the catalyst to manifest it. DM

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