In an article on Daily Maverick, Dr Wilmot James, one of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation’s trustees, comments on how President Donald Trump is threatening to withdraw foreign aid to South Africa and offering refugee resettlement to Afrikaners (presumably only the whites).
James argues that Trump and Musk’s actions will cause more harm than good to South Africa’s economy and potentially disrupt relations between different sections of its population.
He writes:
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for his beliefs. He emerged with an enduring desire to establish a democratic and free society for all and not just some. He believed that South Africa could only succeed if the assets and talents of everyone including all minority populations were included in a forward-looking historical project for South Africa he called nation-building.
It is with the greatest regret that US President Donald Trump and his helper Elon Musk today seek to undo and shatter the peacemaking efforts of one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century.
He continues to point out that Trump and Musk’s actions appear to be a ploy to prevent population collapse by introducing incentives to drive higher birth rates in the world’s leading economies. Also, through selective immigration, allowing entry only to those who are “smart, hardworking and honest”. In their case “European or white, like Trump’s favourite nationality, the Norwegians, or Musk’s Afrikaners.”
James concludes his article with a warning that these actions and statements are an echo similar to those found during Apartheid.
This eerily resembles apartheid’s assisted immigration scheme that brought thousands of protestants of Anglo-Saxon descent to bolster the white population during the 1960s and 1970s.
Dr Wilmot James
