Ramaphosa decries AfriForum, Solidarity’s ‘unpatriotic’ actions in Washington

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Afrikaner interest group AfriForum and the union Solidarity’s recent actions in Washington were unpatriotic.

“I have expressed my concern and my disappointment at what AfriForum and Solidarity have been doing in spreading misinformation about their own country in the United States, and I regard that as being non-patriotic [sic], because when you are a patriot of a country, the best you do is to resolve the problems or the issues you have in-country, rather than begin to damage the sovereignty of your own country by running off to other countries and expecting them to take action against your own country,” Ramaphosa told members of Parliament on Tuesday.

The President was answering questions from MPs.

Ramaphosa said, in part, what AfriForum and Solidarity had done was “instigated the action that is now being taken against the people of South Africa”. He added that law enforcement agencies and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) “would need to look at” whether the organisations’ actions were treasonous.

Read more: Flat spin — Solidarity’s Washington lobbying trip is big on hype, scant on details

“But I take a dim view, in fact a very negative view, of what has ensued as they run around the world badmouthing their own country and putting their country into disrepute — not by things that are happening, but by misinformation.

“That also leads to dividing our own nation, because what they are seeking to do is spread racist statements about their own country when we are involved in building a nation out of the throes of a very divided situation that we suffered under.

“I am hugely disappointed and take a dim view of what AfriForum and Solidarity have done,” said Ramaphosa.

Last month, AfriForum and Solidarity visited Washington, DC, to meet with representatives from US President Donald Trump’s administration, and hand over a memorandum of recommendations, including the aiding of an “Afrikaner development fund”.

Their visit followed a sustained attack over the past few weeks on South Africa by the Trump administration, which has halted all foreign assistance to this country because of the Expropriation Act and South Africa’s foreign policy position towards the US ally Israel.

One of Trump’s executive orders also promoted the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping “government-sponsored, race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation”.

On Friday, 7 March, Trump repeated his lies about the confiscation of land in South Africa in a post on his Truth Social.

He wrote: “South Africa is being terrible, plus, to long time Farmers in the country. They are confiscating their LAND and FARMS, and MUCH WORSE THAN THAT. A bad place to be right now, and we are stopping all Federal Funding. To go a step further, any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship.”

He said this process would begin immediately.

Pretoria responded by saying it would not engage in “megaphone diplomacy”, according to a Reuters report.

‘US remains a strategic partner’

However, in the House on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said the US remained a “strategic as well as a historic partner” of South Africa.

“South Africa maintains its active engagement with the US through political, diplomatic and economic channels.

“Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool has recently been posted to Washington, DC, for his second stint as our country’s envoy to the US. Ambassador Rasool is on the ground and briefs me almost every other day. He’s on the ground with his team engaging various stakeholders to underscore the importance of deepening economic, political and cultural relations between these two historic partners, the US and SA,” said Ramaphosa.

Read more:

• The diplomatic divide: How South Africa’s alliances challenge US foreign policy goals


• Redefining the South Africa-US trade and investment relationship

Ramaphosa said Pretoria continued to engage with the US to correct mischaracterisation of SA’s land reform policies, “to ensure that we restore ties between our two countries.

“A lot of work is under way through various channels to ensure that the relationship is restored and I’m confident that all the efforts that we’re putting in place, both diplomatic, political and otherwise, will bear fruit.”

‘Participation in Agoa is at the behest of the US’

While not explicitly revoked in Trump’s executive order, SA’s future participation in the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) has been cast into serious doubt.

Last week, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told The New York Times that SA expected Trump would terminate the country’s Agoa participation.

On Tuesday, Ramaphosa suggested that South Africa’s participation in Agoa — set to expire in September — was as much to the US’s benefit as it was to our own.

“Participation in Agoa is not at our behest — it is at the behest of the US — and what we seek to do and have done so for many years is to demonstrate that we are a good trading partner to the US and indeed to many other countries around the world, and that we do adhere to the rules and regulations that are put in place to enable our participation in trade agreements, whether they are bilateral or multilateral,” he said.

Read more: Agoa in peril — a litmus test for SA’s ability to adapt to a shifting world order

“We do derive value from Agoa, but we also give value. We export, but we also import from the US, so it is a two-way process, as it is with many other countries around the world. As it is now, we continue, not only in anticipation of an Agoa initiative, but we continue to expand our export market.”

Ramaphosa said SA was looking to “open up more market space for South African goods” in the Middle East and the Far East.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping has been saying to South Africa, “We [China] want to buy more goods from South Africa’, and indeed, other leaders in other parts of the Middle East have been saying precisely that.

“But we want to continue trading with the US because we sell minerals, vehicles [and] agricultural products to them.” DM