'White supremacists in suits and ties': the rightwing Afrikaner group in Trump's ear

[milestogo]

Donald Trump’s offer of political asylum to South Africa’s white minority, just days after blocking genuine refugees from travelling to the US, followed years of campaigning by an Afrikaner group that has promoted “white genocide” conspiracy theories while also lobbying on behalf of Elon Musk’s business interests.

Last week, Trump issued an executive order that misrepresented a new South African law, the Expropriation Act, as a racist move to persecute white Afrikaners by seizing their farms without compensation. The law is intended to address deep inequalities as the result of apartheid and colonial legislation that resulted in the white minority, who make up just 7% of South Africa’s population, still owning more than 70% of agricultural land more than three decades after the end of the apartheid system imposed by the Afrikaner-dominated government. It permits expropriation in exceptional circumstances, such as abandoned land, but generally requires “just and equitable” compensation.

That did not stop Trump from falsely claiming: “South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.” The president’s order came after years of lobbying by an Afrikaner rights groups, AfriForum, which caught Trump’s attention during his first term by claiming that white farmers in South Africa were being murdered for political ends and to seize their land. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) civil rights organisation has described AfriForum’s leaders as white supremacists in suits and ties. Musk, who was raised in apartheid South Africa and is now a member of Trump’s inner circle as head of the “department of government efficiency”, has echoed claims portraying Afrikaner farmers as victims of racist murders and suggesting that a genocide against whites is imminent. However, the tech billionaire appears to be leveraging that false narrative to challenge affirmative action laws that conflict with attempts to sell his Starlink satellite network in South Africa.

Musk has accused South Africa of “openly racist ownership laws” as he applied pressure on the government to exempt Starlink from regulations to uplift people of colour oppressed by apartheid by requiring major business deals to include Black investors. He has rejected a requirement that foreign investors in the country’s telecoms sector provide 30% of the equity in the South African part of the enterprise to Black-owned businesses. AfriForum is campaigning on Musk’s behalf by claiming that Starlink is being prevented from doing business in South Africa because it is “too white” and is subject to “strict race-based criteria”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/trump-musk-south-africa-afriforum