Washed-up musician, controversial FF+ MP team up to fight ' Trump' s white genocide spin'
In the strangest political jam-session South Africa never asked for, a once-famous musician and a Freedom Front Plus MP, frequently accused of peddling racist rhetoric, have suddenly found themselves on the same side.
Their mission? To slam a group of Afrikaners who say Donald Trump is hijacking their identity to fuel his favourite narrative: a supposed white genocide in South Africa.
Steve Hofmeyr and Renaldo Gouws have each taken to social media to negate the sentiments of the 40+ Afrikaners who signed a letter rejecting Trump’s narrative.
“We reject the narrative that casts Afrikaners as victims of racial persecution in post-apartheid South Africa. This framing, now being used to support the far-right ‘Great Replacement’ theory in the United States, is not only misleading, but also dangerous,” the letter reads.
“Let us be clear: South Africa faces serious challenges – crime, inequality, and the enduring legacy of apartheid. But these issues affect South Africans of all races. To cherry-pick white suffering and elevate it above others is dishonest and harmful. It feeds extremist ideologies that perpetuate division and have inspired real-world violence, including mass shootings,” the letter continues.
The group further accused the US leader of hijacking their ethnic identity both in SA and overseas.
The letter, co-signed by well-known journalists, church leaders and academics, has been lambasted by Hofmeyr and Gouws.
Hofmeyr thanked Trump for his refugee status offer, and further dismissed the contents of the letter, which have been praised by the African National Congress (ANC).
“Please dismiss the letter, print it out, and glue it over any Biden portrait in the White House,” Hofmeyr said in a video on YouTube.
Hofmeyr, who had to postpone his Cape Town IKOON concert at the 55,000 seater DHL Stadium in March this year, after only selling 8,000 tickets, said he and “most Afrikaners” were in “awe” of what Trump was doing.
He further urged people to sign a petition started by ex-DA MP Gouws.
Gouws, who was booted from the DA following an IOL exposé on his racist past, also thanked the Republican leader adding that Trump has saved lives by aiming to resettle minorities from the Afrikaner community.
According to the petition, Trump’s “administration’s bold Refugee Admissions Program for South Africans has illuminated shared struggles in ways that are profoundly affirming”.
So far, 5,725 people have signed the petition. Lobby groups, the Solidarity Movement and AfriForum have also shown support for the Trump Afrikaner refugee program.
The ANC’s Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri commended the Afrikaner group for asserting that they were not pawns in a culture war.
“Their statement affirms that true patriotism lies in facing the truth and building bridges of understanding, not denying the lived unequal realities of our people,” Bhengu-Motsiri said.
Last week, only three people turned up for a flight destined for the US even though the US government reserved 50 seats. To date, at least 59 white South Africans have left for the US, as part of the special refugee program. The first group of left in May this year, while the second group left in June.
So far, the group that penned the letter discounting Trump’s claims have not responded to either Hofmeyr or Gouws’s sentiments.
IOL