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Approximately 1 200 Afrikaners gathered outside the US embassy in Pretoria on Saturday in a demonstration of support for US President Donald Trump, who criticised South Africa for its ‘unjust’ treatment of white South Africans, reports Cape {town} Etc.

Trump’s subsequent executive order to suspend all aid to South Africa and offer to grant white Afrikaners asylum in the US comes in response to the recent law on land expropriation, with the assumption that the government would be confiscating land without compensation.

‘South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social Platform at the time.

‘I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!’

There, however, is no clause in the law that specifically targets land owned by white people or Afrikaners, reported News24. There is also no clause that states land must or definitely will be expropriated without compensation, but only allows for it in very specific circumstances.

Rallying under the slogan ‘Make South Africa Great Again’, the group aimed to submit a 26-page memorandum outlining their concerns over the Expropriation Act, 118 affirmative action laws that ‘explicitly target white people, as well as the ongoing farm murders.

The memorandum was handed over by Willem Petzer, the apparent convener of the mass demonstration, according to News24, alongside a petition with allegedly more than 138 000 signatures.

Among other chants and songs, the group of demonstrators reportedly sang South Africa’s current national anthem as well as Die Stem – the country’s apartheid-era Afrikaans national anthem.

Later, on Saturday evening, the US embassy to South Africa released a statement on X announcing that it had acknowledged the memorandum.

‘The U.S Embassy in South Africa received a petition this morning addressed to President Donald Trump, seeking US support to change policies and laws affecting the Afrikaner community in SA,’ read the statement.

‘We will transmit the full text of the document to the President and Secretary of State for immediate action.’

Speaking at SONA, which took place at City Hall in Cape Town on 6 February 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed Trump’s intervention, saying that South Africa would not be ‘bullied’ and reaffirmed the country’s sovereignty.

‘We are witnessing the rise of nationalism, protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause,’ said Ramaphosa.

‘This is the world that we as South Africa, a developing economy, must now navigate, but we are not daunted. We are, as South Africans, a resilient people, and we will not be bullied.’

Also read:

Orania Movement backs Trump, but insists on staying in SA

Picture: @TewieWessels1 / X

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