uMkhonto weSizwe claims that AfriForum has lobbied a “foreign government” to sabotage Pretoria’s economy
Former South African President Jacob Zuma’s party, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), has filed a complaint against white Afrikaner minority group AfriForum, accusing it of treason after US President Donald Trump cut aid to the country over a controversial new law.
The opposition MK Party announced the move on Monday, claiming AfriForum has “deliberately lobbied foreign powers” to undermine South Africa’s sovereignty and economic interests.
“Their betrayal is nothing less than an act of economic sabotage, a direct assault on our nation’s independence and a dangerous attempt to undermine the will of the people,” the party said in a statement.
Last week, Trump ordered a halt to any financial assistance to South Africa, citing an expropriation law Pretoria has passed to address racial disparities in land ownership and its genocide case against US ally Israel. The US president accused Pretoria of “shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights” and alleged that newly adopted legislation allows the government to confiscate agricultural property from Afrikaners without compensation.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected the claims, insisting that his government “has not confiscated any land.”
Afrikaners are descendants of European colonists, mostly from the Netherlands, who arrived in what would become modern South Africa in the 17th century. Africa’s most advanced economy extended voting rights to all adults in 1994 and ended decades of apartheid, but white farmers still own the majority of land in the country. Pretoria has set a target of transferring 30% of farmland to black farmers by 2030.
AfriForum has lobbied against the legislation in the US and through media campaigns, claiming it violates property rights. On February 3, the non-profit group warned that it will ask Washington to impose sanctions on Ramaphosa and members of his party, the African National Congress (ANC), instead of punishing “South Africa’s residents.”
On Monday, the MK party, a member of the Progressive Caucus, an alliance that opposes Ramaphosa’s Government of National Unity in parliament, referred to AfriForum as an “enemy of the South African people.”
“Their latest act of treachery – lobbying the US government to impose punitive economic measures on South Africa – is a deliberate attempt to weaken our state through external pressure,” MK stated.
“AfriForum has a long and disgraceful history of opposing South Africa’s democratic transformation, shielding the racist economic interests of the privileged European settler elite while disregarding the suffering of the oppressed majority,” it added.
The party – whose leader Zuma is already at odds with the ANC following his expulsion for leading the MK in last year’s elections – says it submitted a case against AfriForum at Cape Town’s central police station.
In response, AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel called the charges “absurd.”
“False allegations that AfriForum has spread misleading information about the Expropriation Act and that this is the reason for the US action against South Africa are blatant lies,” he said.
AfriForum, a non-profit civil rights organization founded in 2006, was created “to call up Afrikaners to participate in public debate and actions outside of the sphere of party politics”, according to their web-site.
