The Thabo Mbeki Foundation has released a 123-page paper, "The United States of America and the Future of the Afrikaners in South Africa," which examines the deteriorating relationship between Pretoria and Washington through the lens of South Africa's unresolved racial and economic inequalities. The paper argues that the dispute cannot be understood simply through disagreements over BEE, land expropriation, farm attacks, or South Africa's foreign policy. Instead, it places the confrontation within the context of the "national question" – the continuing consequences of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa and slavery and racial segregation in the US.
The foundation draws parallels between the US experience in addressing the legacy of slavery through civil rights legislation, affirmative action, and programs aimed at expanding economic opportunities for black Americans. It points to Donald Trump's 2020 election campaign "Platinum Plan" aimed at black Americans, which included proposals to increase access to capital and create jobs. The foundation uses this history to challenge US criticism of South Africa's transformation policies, arguing that 32 years after the end of apartheid, the country cannot reasonably be expected to have eliminated the economic consequences of centuries of racial discrimination.
The paper examines the February 2025 visit by representatives of the Solidarity Movement, AfriForum, and Solidarity to the US and the "Washington Memorandum" prepared during their engagement. The memorandum outlines Afrikaner requests for recognition and institutionalization of cultural autonomy in South Africa and assistance for an Afrikaner Development Fund. The proposed fund would support safety, social, employment, and training structures, as well as infrastructure enabling Afrikaners to settle in a more concentrated manner. The foundation argues that these proposals go beyond the protection of Afrikaans language and culture and could amount to an attempt to establish increasingly separate Afrikaner-controlled communities.
The foundation challenges claims that Afrikaners have been subjected to systematic economic persecution since 1994, citing high levels of crime, unemployment, poverty, inequality, and governance failures that have disproportionately affected the black majority. It argues that significant racial disparities in wealth and living standards remain and that ending BEE and other measures intended to address these disparities would risk preserving South Africa's "two nations" – one relatively prosperous and largely white, and the other poor and overwhelmingly black.
The paper accuses Afrikaner organizations of seeking to protect the standard of living Afrikaners acquired through South Africa's history of colonialism and apartheid while securing legal recognition for cultural autonomy. The foundation links this to a broader "counter-revolution" against the transformation project pursued after 1994. It argues that weakening the state's commitment to transformation would leave the socioeconomic structure inherited from apartheid substantially intact and perpetuate racial inequality.
The foundation warns that if South Africa abandons a determined program to eradicate the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, the country risks a "social explosion." Drawing on the American experience and the racial unrest that led to the appointment of the Kerner Commission in the 1960s, the foundation argues that persistent racial inequality can eventually produce social upheaval. This warning marks a significant escalation from the foundation's broader argument about transformation.
The intervention comes at a particularly strained point in relations between Pretoria and Washington, with disputes over BEE, land policy, and US allegations of racial discrimination against Afrikaners forming part of the diplomatic breakdown. The foundation's paper is a call to action, urging the South African government to remain committed to its transformation agenda and warning of the potential consequences of abandoning efforts to address the country's racial and economic inequalities.
Key points
- The Thabo Mbeki Foundation warns that abandoning efforts to address apartheid's economic legacy could deepen South Africa's racial divisions and provoke social instability.
- The foundation draws parallels between the US experience in addressing the legacy of slavery and South Africa's efforts to address the legacy of apartheid.
- The paper argues that persistent racial inequality can eventually produce social upheaval, citing the American experience and the racial unrest that led to the appointment of the Kerner Commission in the 1960s.
