‘Trump prostituting Afrikaner identity to fuel political divisions in America’ - Prof Piet Croucamp

Prominent Afrikaners, including academics and public figures, have written to United States senators refuting claims made by US President Donald Trump that Afrikaners are facing a genocide in South Africa.

Piet Croucamp, a professor of politics at North West University and one of the letter’s signatories, describes Trump’s remarks as "factually wrong" and harmful to the country's international reputation.

“I spoke to the senator for Delaware, Chris Coons, last week, and he assured me that in America, there is a general sense that what Donald Trump says is not true. He is enormously powerful. He is the president of America. But when it comes to these types of statements, many of them consider him to be something like a village idiot, who shoots from the hip and shoots from the mouth and, then, without the need to substantiate it."

Croucamp accuses Trump of "prostituting Afrikaner identity" to fuel political divisions in America.

"We do not confuse Black government and bad government with each other."

He criticised Solidarity and AfriForum for promoting racially charged narratives abroad, warning that they reinforced harmful stereotypes and divisions at home.

"If Solidarity and AfriForum are the only ones representing white voices in South Africa, if there's not somebody standing up, a voice of reason, and telling the Americans this is not true, then Black South Africans will start to believe that if white South Africans get any political power, they will bring apartheid back."

Croucamp emphasised that most Afrikaners support democracy, benefit from it, and reject any notion of returning to apartheid.

To listen to Croucamp in conversation with CapeTalk's John Maytham, click below: