How the ridiculous ‘refugee’ pageant Trumps mass murder and people with Aids in public debate

Donald Trump has it in for South Africa.

Probably it’s because our government has led the litigation against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Also because we made the most noise when he withdrew billions of dollars in life-saving HIV programmes across the world, as well as funds for research into deadly diseases, much of that research conducted here.

Perhaps too there’s a bonus reason to destabilise our country: many of Trump’s supporters see South Africa as exemplifying their much-hated “DEI” – diversity, equity and inclusion. We are a mish-mash of ethnicities, colours, languages and religions. Yet, to their annoyance, we are a somewhat functional constitutional democracy, in which black people have the preponderance of political power.

Trump has two challenges with South Africa: deal with the fallout of putting millions of lives at risk after gutting USAID and Pepfar, and send a clear message that any country that holds Israel to account using international legal institutions will face America’s wrath.

So Trump did what he and his Maga crowd do best. Identify a genuine problem or two that will animate right-wing people. Massively exaggerate these problems. And then make a spectacle that diverts attention from issues that matter far more.

In this case it’s the Expropriation Act and farm murders. Both issues are important – farmers are murdered at a rate higher than the country’s average (so are the residents of Nyanga and many other townships), and the balance between land redistribution and property rights is indeed a complicated problem, one for which our government has not found good solutions. But both problems are domestic ones, of close to zero international concern.

Yet Trump, with the help of AfriForum, Solidarity and other Maga mouthpieces, massively amplified, exaggerated and oversimplified these issues. Then Trump turned it into a spectacle by offering asylum to Afrikaners, culminating in this week’s ridiculous chartered flight of about 50 white people to the US as “refugees”.

Tim Cohen and Max du Preez have superbly debunked this nonsense. But what has been lost in the analysis is this: while much time and energy is spent debating farm murders and the absurdity of Afrikaner refugees, thousands of South Africans have fallen out of TB and HIV care programmes because of the withdrawal of US funding. Many will die. (See HIV patient testing falls in South Africa after US aid cuts, data shows.)

In Cape Town, the Ivan Toms centre, which treated many gay and trans people, has shut. In Johannesburg, the Wits clinics that treated sex workers and other extremely vulnerable people in the inner city, have closed. (There’s much more.)

Trump’s spectacle with the Afrikaner “refugees” has diverted attention from this. The “refugees” have been a leading story on BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail and social media. Public debate, instead of focusing on how Trump’s crushing of Pepfar is killing people in South Africa and the rest of the world, is diverted by the refugee pageant. No doubt many will buy Trump’s propaganda, ridiculous as it is. The Maga faithful will truly believe that there is systematic oppression of Afrikaners and that ending aid was a reasonable response to this.

After all, who wants to read about down-and-out queers and hookers with Aids when we can rather debate about whether white South Africans deserve refugee status in the US?

And the story has also diverted attention from Israel’s campaign of mass murder and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Our government has been noticeably quieter about this since Trump started picking on South Africa.

For authoritarians and propagandists, Trump, with a good deal of help from AfriForum, has set a brilliant example of how to get away with doing very bad things. It’s a real talent. DM

First published by GroundUp.