South Africa has recently gotten media attention for some of its political altercations with the United States. The United States is now offering refuge for white South Africans and is threatening sanctions against South Africa. But why is this happening?
The group being offered refuge come from an ethnic group called the “Afrikaners,” a group that is derived from Dutch, German, French, and other countries’ immigration in 1652. They predominantly controlled lots of aspects throughout the country until 1994, when they held the first open elections to all races, in which the country elected Nelson Mandela as its first black president. The Trump Administration has taken a view that the black-majority population might try and do something similar to the Afrikaners’ control pre-1994.
There are a few things that lead the Trump Administration to think this way about South Africa. First, the Expropriation Act of 2024, which allows the government to take away land for public purposes or public interest, has gotten the Administration fearful of a dictatorship-like control over white-owned land. Also, farm attacks on white-owned farms have also contributed to this idea, and Trump has regarded these series of attacks as “genocide.”
Lots of South African political parties, particularly the Democratic Alliance (DA), a political party known for supporting white South Africans, are fully against the Expropriation Act, as it does give the government the power to take away land, and in some cases not pay the owners their full worth of the land. On the contrary, the DA does not see any evidence that the farm attacks are racially motivated.
The Trump Administration, under the United States, is now officially offering refuge to Afrikaners in order to escape any potential dangers. The first group of 59 individuals arrived in the country on May 12, 2025, and more might be coming as well.
President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa will meet with President Trump sometime on May 21st, as he arrives in the United States on May 19th. The two countries aim to “reset their relationship,” and give each other a fresh start in regards to all national foreign affairs, such as the Israel-Hamas war.
It will be interesting to see how all of these events can help shift the path towards a better, more peaceful world for everyone to live in. Hopefully, the world will be able to create a future free from war, conflict, but rather create unity for everyone to live in harmony.
