Trump's Afrikaners are South African opportunists, not refugees: What's behind the US move

South Africans are wearily attuned to governments' Orwellian misuse of language.

- BY ROGER SOUTHALL PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

After all, South Africa is a country where a one-time government passed a law (the Natives Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act of 1952) which extended rather than abolishing the notorious pass system. This made it compulsory for black South Africans, over the age of 16, to carry a passbook. And the same government passed the Extension of University Education Act of 1959 which made it more, not less, difficult for black students to register at "open" (or white) universities.

So perhaps they should not be unduly surprised that the government of the US has imported 49 Afrikaners and labelled them as "refugees". The claim is that they are escaping from the persecution of Afrikaners - and white people more broadly - in South Africa today.

The Trump administration knows perfectly well this claim is a complete fabrication. As President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government have pointed out, there is no evidence whatsoever that Afrikaners or white people more generally are subject to genocide.

True, South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world. But it is poor black South Africans - not whites - who are principal victims of such deadly violence. Nor are Afrikaners/whites subject to persecution. Along with all other South Africans, their human rights are protected by a Constitution. This is no mere piece of paper. Its provisions are (albeit imperfectly, and unlike in the US these days) largely enforced by the courts.

Furthermore, genocide implies the deliberate elimination of a people on racial, ethnic, or religious grounds. Therefore, if a genocide of whites and Afrikaners was taking place, we might assume that their numbers would be falling. In fact, the reverse is true. The white population has continued to grow (albeit slowly) in absolute numbers since 1994.