Do Afrikaners want to leave South Africa in the United States?

Ulrich Janse Van Vuuren made his passion to share and present some of the best characteristics of South Africa with his Legion of followers on social networks.

The 38-year-old white South African often takes parts capturing scenes such as a cold morning of Johannesburg, the trees of purple jacaranda associated with Pretoria or the popular fronts of Cape Town.

“The promotion of South Africa is something that fascinates me – I have no intention of taking the offer (American president Donald Trump) because South Africa is my house,” said proud Afrikaner at the BBC, a few days after a small group of his white compatriots left South Africa for their new life as refugees in the United States.

The American president, and his ally born in South African Elon Musk, says that white Afrikaners are persecuted in their country of origin and that they are subject to a “genocide”.

This is an assertion that has been circulating for many years, even if it has been largely discredited.

Although some white farmers have been attacked and killed, South Africa has one of the highest rates of murder in the world, it is therefore a problem that affects all its citizens, whatever their race.

“For me, South Africa is at home. It is a place where my roots and my heritage are, where I can contribute to the history of our nation and have a significant impact,” said Mr. Janse Van Vuuren, who has more than a million followers on social networks.

“I am deeply invested in the success of South Africa and I am proud to be part of his trip.”

And even if he wanted those who adopted Trump’s offer in the United States and urged them to “not look back”, he insisted that none of them was refugee, but rather “opportunistic”.

“They appreciated more than their share of the resources and privileges of South Africa, and none was fleeing racial persecution,” he said.

Thirty years after the end of the racist apartheid system, the average standard of living among the white community of South Africa remains much higher than for the black majority.

Mr. Janse Van Vuuren said that the debate on the status of Afrikaners in South Africa had been used to make it “more determined than ever to intensify and contribute to South Africa in any way possible”.

Four centuries after the first group of Dutch settlers have arrived in what is now South Africa, most Afrikaners consider themselves entirely African – as shown in the name – and no longer identify with their European roots.

But many are dissatisfied with both the high crime rate and government policies aimed at reducing economic inequalities in the country – in particular a law adopted earlier this year which has enabled the government to seize land without compensation “when it is fair and fair and in the public interest”. White South Africans represent 7% of the country’s population, but have half of its agricultural land.

Some Afrikaners are farmers and consider the law as intended for them.

Trump said the legislation had prompted him to offer to reinstall “Afrikaner refugees escaped from discrimination based on the race sponsored by the government”.

The status of white South African farmers has long been a cry for rallying on the right and the far right of American policy.

But despite numerous claims in the past of the systematic targeting of the country’s minority Afrikaner group in the country, the figures of local crime statistics paint a different image.

South Africa does not publish crime figures based on breed, but the last figures revealed that 6,953 people were murdered in the country between October and December 2024. Among these, 12 were killed in agricultural attacks. Of the 12, one was a farmer, while five were residents of the farm and four were employees, who were probably black.

On Monday, the first group of 59 Afrikaners granted refugee status arrived at Dulles airport near Washington DC after choosing to leave their country of origin.

The arrival of the group attracted dismay and indignation through South Africa, while civil society and the country’s management aimed to dispel the assertions that the white minority was persecuted.

“They leave because they do not want to adopt the changes that take place in our country and our constitution,” said South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.

He then labeled their move a “cowardly act” while it was addressed to farmers during an agreement organized in the province of the free state.

The President’s feelings were taken up by many South Africans, including Mr. Janse Van Vuuren, proud of his Afrikaner origins.

Although he was not raised in an agricultural family, he has parents and friends in agriculture who have been victims of crimes.

He said that if he was undeniable that some farmers were confronted with “real threats and difficulties”, it was important to be prudent “during the discussion of allegations of persecution or discrimination which depict an entire group as victims of targeted violence or systemic oppression”.

While many white South Africans echo the feelings of Mr. Janse Van Vuuren, there are also those who consider themselves a persecuted minority.

Among them, Ilse Steenkamp, ​​who, with his family, applied for the program but has not received any comments. She didn’t want us to use her real name.

Ms. Steenkamp, ​​47, and her husband, both Afrikaners, were commercial farmers, but said they had lost their land recently after being invaded by people who “took over the whole farm” just as they were about to sell it to “lower”.

She said they bought the land two decades ago after the end of apartheid.

The people who have invaded destroyed critical infrastructure, which makes it impossible for sale impossible, she said.

Despite the efforts to have them withdrawn from the courts, Steenkamp said they had been forced to abandon the land because it was taken over by the bank.

Steenkamp said that even if she and her family knew the high levels of South Africa’s high crime and often tried to “not let him put us”, the latter attack “was the straw that broke the back of the camel”.

Even if his family was impatient to kiss Trump’s offer during his first announcement, the mother of three told the BBC that the decision to leave “was very difficult because you … Leave a lifestyle.”

When he was asked if it was unfair that Afrikaners granted themselves to the refugee status at a time when the United States repressed refugees and asylum seekers around the world, Steenkamp said that she was completely disagreeing. ”

She underlined the attacks on farmers, saying that there was a “hatred that seems to go with these attacks”.

“Any farmer who has crossed this (sort) of attack and who now wants to flee, I think that should be treated as a refugee because he was fled a government which will not even admit that these things happen,” she said.

Sam Busà, 60, is another white South African who applied for the refugee program.

She is the founder of Amerikaners, a platform to provide information to white South Africans interested in the American resettlement offer.

While Mrs. Busà, who is English, not Afrikaner, descends and her three sons submitted their requests, they have not yet been interviewed.

Although it was initially believed that the decree, vague in its original formulation, applied only to white Afrikaners, Ms. Busà declared that she clearly aims for white South Africans “.

On Monday, the United States Embassy in South Africa published a declaration clarifying the criteria for those who request a resettlement, which declared that the candidates should be:

• Of South African nationality
• Afrikaner or a racial minority
• Capable of quoting an incident of past persecution or fear of persecution in the future

Responding to the criticism that they were not real refugees, Ms. Busà said: “When someone suppresses your hope for the future, even if you are not in a war zone … Someone who tears your dreams and your hope for the future, it is very dramatic. It is mental anxiety and an emotional abuse in a direction.”

But Dr. Piet Croucamp, an associate professor in political studies at the northwest university of South Africa, did not agree, echoing the idea that those who adopt this offer were not refugees because “South Africa does not persecute people”.

Rather, he hypothesized that it could be those who were victims of a crime and “could define their existence as unsecured”.

Dr. Croucamp, who is an Afrikaner, said that even if he did not expect a large number of white South Africans to follow suit, there would always be “opportunistic” people taking advantage of the situation.

“It is a small group of people who leave – the vast majority of Afrikaners are not going out and they expressed themselves. Even right -wing Afrikaners … (like) Afriforum and Solidarité said they were not going anywhere. So even in Afrikaner circles, it’s a small group of people, “he said.

Despite their criticism of the government and its breed -based policies, the eminent Afrikaner lobbies groups Afriforum and the solidarity movement have both reiterated their intention to stay in South Africa.

Afriforum said that even if the government was responsible for the departure of the group granting refugee, they would remain and continue their “efforts to help create a future for Afrikaners here at the southern tip of Africa”.

This is a view with which Mr. Janse Van Vuuren accepted.

“While some can choose to leave as refugees, the majority of us are there to stay, work together to build a better future for everyone in South Africa.”