The Solidarity Movement has said that although it did warn about the “dangers” of the Expropriation Act, it did not present allegations to the US government that large-scale expropriation without compensation is taking place in South Africa.
The Solidarity Movement and its sister organisation, AfriForum, made a trip to the US recently, to discuss concerns regarding South Africa’s policies.
The organisation was criticised for this move, with many blaming AfriForum, Solidarity and the Solidarity Movement for creating a campaign of misinformation that led to US President Donald Trump cutting funding to South Africa.
“We want to make it clear that we have never made allegations of a ‘genocide’ of white people in South Africa. We have not called for sanctions against South Africa. We have not requested that any funds to South Africa be cut off by the US,” said Solidarity Movement chairperson Flip Buys.
Buys said the organisation explicitly asked that South Africa not be kicked out of African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) agreement because it would cost thousands of South Africans their jobs.
“As patriotic South-Africans, we have called on the US not to punish the people of South Africa when the Trump administration is angry with the ANC [African National Congress],” he said.
The organisation said should the US kick South Africa out of the Agoa agreement, the blame must be laid squarely at the door of the Ramaphosa government.
"The ANC must stop its ongoing disinformation now," the movement said.
The Solidarity Movement said the ANC must accept responsibility for the diplomatic crisis with the US owing to what it termed the party’s “reckless policies”.
“The ANC must stop blaming Solidarity and AfriForum for it,” Buys said.
He said the ongoing “false allegations” that Solidarity and AfriForum were spreading misinformation abroad were “nothing but disinformation” and an attempt to make the organisation a scapegoat for the ANC’s mistakes.
“We reject the ANC’s hypocritical statements that we should solve our problems internally in South Africa rather than complain about them abroad. The ANC has clearly demonstrated with the BELA negotiations that they are not prepared to respect the constitutional provision for Afrikaans education. Their refusal to find solutions in good faith to fundamental issues that profoundly affect our language and culture leaves us with no choice but to internationalise our cause,” he said.
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