The FW de Klerk Foundation has come out in strong opposition to US president Donald Trump's attacks on South Africa and the offering of citizenship to white farmers who he says are being treated unfairly.
Christo van der Rheede, executive at the FW de Klerk Foundation said that Trump's actions are based on disinformation and lack any basis in truth.
"The challenges we face in South Africa are not just limited to white people. All of us are affected by crime, unemployment and ill-conceived policies, especially economic ones," he told the SABC.
Van der Rheede said that Trump's rhetoric and executive orders are dangerous and based on cheap politics which will cause great harm to the South African economy and to the country's agricultural industry.
"It is part of an ethnic nationalist revival. We have seen it happening in the US, France, Hungary and many European states and the South African right wing has seen this as an opportunity to confront the non-racial democratic dispensation that was founded in 1994," Van der Rheede said.
He added that this is misaligned with what the country strives for. "If you read the Constitution, it says it belongs to all of the people that live in it. It talks a non-racial, non-sexist society, an accountable and responsive government and that is what we as South Africans should challenge."
Trump said on Friday that South African farmers were welcome to relocate in the US, echoing his unfounded claim that the government was confiscating property from white people as he announced the suspension of federal financing.
"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 posted on Truth Social.
In a response, the government said that it will not partake in 'megaphone diplomacy'.
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