Neil Diamond, the man with a list of 67,000 Afrikaner refugee wannabes, is an old ANC comrade

A perfunctory scrape of the internet turns up that Neil Diamond, the US-based businessman who collated a list of 67,000 potential Afrikaner Trumpugees, was once a member of the ANC and adviser to former Deputy President David Mabuza.

Take that.

Diamond moved to the US in 2019, where he became involved with South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA (Saccusa), and has been mingling with staunch heavyweight comrades. Saccusa was founded in 1981.

As it happens, prominent businessman Robert Gumede, one of the richest men in South Africa and who makes no secret of his financial and political support for the ANC, is the chair of the Saccusa Advisory Committee.

The mogul is described on the council’s website as “one of Africa’s most accomplished business leaders and investors. As chair of the Guma group, Gumede has fingers in a diverse group of companies across the globe.”

Gumede is described as a “smart business strategist” and “visionary leader”.

Read more: SIU claims R390 million from billionaire Robert Gumede over dodgy police PPE tender

Through his legal representative, Gumede told Daily Maverick that he had had no knowledge or involvement with the Afrikaner refugee matter.

Diamond, through his legal representative, Megan Pires of Jurgens Bekker Attorneys Inc, responded to Daily Maverick that Saccusa had handed over the details of 67,042 people (the total included dependants) to the US embassy in Pretoria on 18 March.

These details, said Pires, were of people who had “requested more information from Saccusa regarding the refugee offer outlined in President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order (EO)”.

Within days of the EO, Saccusa had requested further information from the State Department, and after the US embassy had provided an official email address, Saccusa referred all inquiries to that channel.

“Please note this figure of 67,042 is only of people, including dependants, that requested information and does not represent the number of individuals who applied for refugee status with the US embassy through the application email,” said Pires.

To support the accuracy of details and confirm the number of 67,042, One Digital, Saccusa’s IT service provider, had verified the number of data entries received from the Saccusa website and this list was submitted to the US embassy, she added.



Diamond told the popular YouTuber Colonel Chris Wyatt on his return from his trip to South Africa that the Saccusa board had taken a decision afterwards “that this was not our role, this is not our space to be, this is the domain of the US government”.

Saccusa’s executive committee includes Diamond as president and chair, with Magda Odendaal, former Capetonian and CEO of SheNet Global and co-owner of SA Emporium Atlanta, as vice-president and chair.

Michelle Naicker of Kelly Williams Realty is the board’s secretary-general. Naicker is a military spouse and former teacher now residing in the US.

Meanwhile, US Republican Congressman Troy Nehls has introduced the  Asylum for Farmers and Refugees in Crisis and Necessary Emigration Resettlement (Afrikaner) Act, which will give Priority-2 refugee status to members of the Afrikaner ethnic minority group.

This would allow refugees a pathway “to flee alleged persecution to which they had been “allegedly” subjected by the South African government.

Mission South Africa

In the real world, The New York Times obtained documents revealing that only about 100 applicants were likely to benefit from Trump’s executive order.

As colleague Rebecca Davis noted about Diamond and his entourage, “amid much self-created fanfare, chamber representatives flew to the US Embassy in Pretoria to hand over the ‘information of 67,042 South Africans expressing interest in the resettlement opportunity offered by President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order’” on 18 March.

Read more: How many Afrikaners will be approved for refugee status in the US?

According to The New York Times, the programme, “Mission South Africa”, is in Phase One while multiple teams have been sent to Pretoria to set up ad hoc refugee centres.

About 8,000 applications were being studied, and not 67,042, and of those, The New York Times reported, teams had “already identified 100 Afrikaners who could be approved for refugee status”.

The newspaper quoted a memo sent from the US embassy in Pretoria to the State Department in Washington in March saying that by mid-April, officials would “propose long-term solutions to ensure the successful implementation of the president’s vision for the dignified resettlement of eligible Afrikaner applicants”.

Among those who had registered with Diamond were heads of families with dependants, widows, widowers and single people, none appeared to be farmers.

Read more: Long walk to fleedom for 70,000 Afrikaners — US bureaucracy rises to occasion

Former ANC connections 

Diamond was treasurer of a church in Alberton, a former councillor in Ekurhuleni and chair of the municipality’s finance committee.

The former Alberton estate agent first made headlines in 2008 after a controversial “land-swap” deal in Meyersdal, south of Johannesburg, involving an upmarket property development in which he held shares despite serving on the council.

Diamond was also an adviser to former Deputy President David Mabuza and worked as the acting municipal manager for Mbombela from 2017 on a three-year contract but resigned suddenly in 2019.

In March 2023, Mabuza resigned as a member of Parliament, ending his term of office as Deputy President.

Mabuza has subsequently been embroiled in a R1-billion damages claim brought by conservationist Fred Daniel against, among others, the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency and Mabuza.

Diamond relocated from Mbombela to the US after his resignation to work as a “consultant” for local governments in that country and Africa. He bills himself as a “development finance specialist”.

Hot potatoes

Diamond has taken five South African publications — Netwerk24, Beeld, The New Age, the Sunday Times and IOL — to the Press Ombud for incorrectly reporting on matters relating to his dealings in South Africa.

In Neil Diamond vs Beeld and Netwerk24, a story about AfriForum and Paul O’Sullivan’s Forensics for Justice and an alleged post on the media outlets’ websites which had implicated Diamond was the matter in dispute.

Diamond contended that while it was true he had been involved in the Meyersdal land swap deal, he had subsequently been “cleared from wrong-doing in all but two allegations (as set out in the Nupen Report, adopted by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in 2010)”.

At the time, it had recommended that no action be taken against him, he reminded the ombud.

Diamond took The Star to the ombud for reporting that there had been calls for his resignation after allegations that he had forged a signature on a will. In that matter, the ombud, Johan Retief, ruled that The Star had omitted to report in its story that it had tried to get hold of Diamond for comment but had failed.

Diamond took the Sunday Times to the ombud for a 2012 story headlined “NC councillor in theft probe – Businessman accused of taking cash from dead partner’s estate”.

Retief sanctioned the newspaper for using incorrect terminology in its report and for the “misleading” headline.

Diamond had been a successful estate agent in Alberton and had been approached to market stands in the Meyersdal Nature Estate. That was the beginning of the story. Diamond, as reiterated in all his representations to the ombud, maintains he was cleared “of most of the charges”.

Saccusa describes itself as a federal body, voluntary association and business organisation founded “for the benefit of all businesspeople, entrepreneurs, professionals and academics living in the United States of America with any past, current, or future link to South Africa”.

Only in South Africa would a former ANC member be a portal for “white Afrikaners” seeking refuge from perceived persecution. It’s politics on tik. DM

We have made two corrections to this article since publication:

1. We had said Diamond founded Saccusa, however it was formed in 1981 and Diamond’s involvement began in 2020.


2. We have published that Diamond is not a “devote” Christian and that he was treasurer of a church in Alberton and not the director.