Flip Buys: The Solidarity Movement consists of patriots seeking solutions for SA and for Afrikaners

Key topics:Breached agreements and race-based laws strain ANC–Afrikaner relationsSolidarity says all domestic remedies failed before pursuing global channelsCalls for a Cultural Accord to secure rights and rebuild SA collaboratively.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Flip Buys*.Solidarity and AfriForum have, since President Trump’s executive order in February this year, been subjected to intense criticism from various quarters. We have, among other things, been accused of being unpatriotic, of spreading misinformation, labelled as enemies of the state, and even charged with and investigated for high treason. We have been blamed for President Trump’s statements on farm murders, the granting of special refugee status to Afrikaners, the introduction of tariffs and the scrapping of AGOA (the African Growth and Opportunity Act), the termination of the United States of America’s (USA) financial support for the Pepfar programme for vulnerable communities, as well as for the alleged spread of misinformation that purportedly led to the USA’s withdrawal from the G20 Summit. It has also been alleged that we are seeking to embarrass the country by washing our “dirty laundry” in public instead of resolving matters domestically through dialogue.The problem is not only that these allegations are entirely false, but also that the ANC escapes accountability when we are portrayed as the scapegoats for everything.Three key questions lie at the heart of this matter: firstly, whether Solidarity and AfriForum truly have reason to be aggrieved with the ANC; secondly, whether we exhausted all available domestic channels before acting internationally; and thirdly, what the solution is to the deterioration of US–SA relations, and how we can help to normalise them..The origin of the breakdown in relations.The origin of the breakdown in relations between the ANC and the Solidarity Movement, which represents approximately two million Afrikaners, lies in our experience that the ANC has materially breached the 1994 agreement. The gap between what was promised in 1994 and what has actually transpired has become so wide that it has led to a breakdown in relations.At the dawn of the new dispensation, Afrikaners were promised that our language, culture, institutions and fundamental interests would be secure – just like those of any other community in the country. We accepted that comprehensive redress would take place but were assured that our legitimate and fundamental interests would not be undermined. For this reason, Afrikaners broadly welcomed the new dispensation and committed us wholeheartedly to making the country a better place for all who live in it..Breached agreements.Despite this, over the past twenty years the ANC has not only governed the country increasingly poorly but has also actively used state power to govern against Afrikaners. Despite provision for single-medium public universities, all formerly Afrikaans universities were taken over and radically transformed. The same has occurred at numerous Afrikaans schools.The Bela legislation was the final straw, containing provisions that, in practice, transferred language and admission policies from the hands of democratically elected governing bodies to state officials. In the negotiations that followed, two agreements were forged with the government: one with a special committee of senior ANC leaders, and the other through a dispute referred by Solidarity to Nedlac, in which the latter resulted in a signed settlement agreement involving the Presidency and the Department of Basic Education. Both sets of agreements were shortly thereafter breached by the ANC when President Ramaphosa signed the Bela legislation without amendment.To us, this was not merely an attack on high-performing Afrikaans schools, but a direct attack on the continued existence of Afrikaners as a cultural community. Schools are, after all, the most important institutions for the transmission of culture from one generation to the next..Draconian quota systems and race-based legislation.The second agreement breached by the ANC related to race-based legislation imposing draconian quotas. This is despite the fact that Section 1 of the South African Constitution describes the country as a non-racial state and the equality clause prohibits racial discrimination.The government implemented race laws that went far beyond international standards. After Solidarity had exhausted all domestic avenues, the organisation submitted a substantive complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). In line with ILO procedures, the government and Solidarity agreed to enter mediation under the auspices of the ILO, facilitated by South Africa’s CCMA, a South African solution to South African problems.A historic agreement was reached, signed by the Minister, mandated by the President, and made an order of court. At the heart of the agreement was the principle that race-based laws must be temporary and applied in a nuanced manner. It was aligned with international standards. To our astonishment, the ANC breached this settlement and court order just a few months later by announcing a new, draconian quota system.The Institute of Race Relations’ Race Law Index shows that there are approximately 142 pieces of legislation in South Africa containing racial provisions, in addition to a large number of regulations and policy documents. In our view, the motivation for these race laws is more political than economic. Their outcome – particularly the sky-high unemployment rate – clearly shows that they do not work. Only 4,6% of people in the country under the age of 18 are white. It is clearly impossible for laws directed against this minority to benefit the remaining 96%. It is also unjust to punish young white people for what happened before their birth, while the ANC refuses to take responsibility for its present failures. This merely disadvantages white people without benefiting black people.In addition, the Expropriation Act was quietly signed into law in December 2024, containing draconian provisions affecting property rights. Senior ANC leaders have openly stated that this law will be used to “correct” the distribution of property in the country, despite findings by a high-level commission chaired by former President Kgalema Motlanthe that the government itself bears the greatest responsibility for the failure of land reform.The ANC’s apparent indifference to farm attacks, and to the incitement associated with the song “Kill the Boer”, is a further source of deep concern for Afrikaners. President Ramaphosa has refused to condemn the song, and the Constitutional Court ruled that it does not constitute hate speech.These are only a few examples of the ways in which Afrikaners experience the violation of their constitutional human rights and fundamental interests, and how they, as first-class taxpayers, are treated like second-class citizens under third-world governance..Domestic channels exhausted.We have utilised every reasonable domestic channel: regular written representations to President Ramaphosa (dating from 2018), engagements with ANC leaders, approaches to statutory bodies such as Nedlac and PanSALB, and ultimately recourse to the courts. Everything possible has been done to find fair, constitutional and moderate solutions within South Africa.With the advent of the Government of National Unity (GNU), we hoped that access to government would improve, and that policy would become more moderate. Instead, we were informed that radical transformation would continue to take precedence – even over constitutional rights. The repeated breach of agreements under the GNU convinced us that international channels had become the last remaining means of protecting our human rights..The United States of America.Even before our international visits, President Trump issued his executive order. This created further uncertainty regarding AGOA and possible tariffs. We were genuinely concerned that thousands of innocent people of all races could lose their jobs and that the already weakened South African economy would suffer further damage.We therefore decided, first and foremost, to urge the American government not to punish the country if it disagreed with the ANC. Well-researched documents on the potential impact of the termination of AGOA were presented to American leaders. At the same time, we expressed our concerns about race-based legislation, hate speech and expropriation, emphasising that we were doing so in the interests of the country, not to harm South Africa.In addition, we stressed that farm attacks are a serious matter for our community but cannot be classified as genocide. Our position was also that, while we appreciate their concern for our safety, we view refugee status only as a solution for a small group of people who have been victims of violence or who have well-founded fears thereof. The vast majority of Afrikaners want to remain in South Africa, and solutions for them must be found here..Cultural freedom.A core global problem – including in South Africa – is that demographic majorities often fail to understand the existential crisis faced by minorities. The Czech writer Milan Kundera describes it as follows:“Small nations. The concept is not quantitative; it points to a condition; a fate; small nations lack that felicitous sense of an eternal past and future; at a given moment in their history they all passed through the antechambers of death; in constant confrontation with the arrogant ignorance of the mighty, they see their existence as perpetually threatened or with a question mark hovering over it; for their very existence is the question.”.Lenin.This is why Afrikaners believe in cultural freedom. The ANC ought to understand this, as it is a prerequisite for equality. Vladimir Lenin expressed it as follows: “The recognition of the right of nations to autonomy means nothing more or less than the recognition of the equality of nations; the denial of this right therefore means the denial of equality.”The ANC should not interpret the legitimate self-protection of a cultural community as a longing for apartheid. The United Nations Development Programme already found in 2004 that constitutional guarantees of individual rights alone are insufficient. Attempts to assimilate cultural groups often lead to renewed cultural revival. The report states explicitly:“If the history of the twentieth century proves anything, it is that efforts to wish away cultural groups or to absorb them into the majority often trigger a vigorous cultural resurgence.”In the national interest, the ANC must realise that it must either reform or become obsolete. Lenin warned:“Too often has it happened that, when history has taken a sharp turn, even progressive parties have for some time been unable to adapt themselves to the new situation. This is the mistake that has led to the wrong strategies, and because of wrong strategies, the tactics are also wrong, especially as applied to social relations and other challenges relating to nation building. National cohesion will remain a myth under the conditions of a perpetual revolution.”.Solutions.Organisations representing more than two million Afrikaners offered more than a year ago to help rebuild the country. It has therefore been proposed that a “Cultural Accord” be concluded between the government and Afrikaners, in which our constitutional rights and spaces are mutually recognised. This would place Afrikaners on an equal footing with other cultural communities in the country. It would also allay growing concerns in Western countries regarding the human rights of Afrikaners. If we can forge partnerships within South Africa, it will enable us to help establish partnerships with countries such as the USA to unlock the country’s full potential..*Flip Buys: Chairperson: Solidarity Movement

Flip Buys: The Solidarity Movement consists of patriots seeking solutions for SA and for Afrikaners

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