It Is Time To Embrace AfriForum

I am not a joiner. Those who know me know that I’m quite the individualist. I may start projects and get involved in a few initiatives, but I never formally join anything, with a few exceptions. But this has changed.

After recent events and research, I have realised that there is an organisation worth joining and supporting in the wasteland of soulless institutions and downright lies that we call South Africa. This organisation is AfriForum.

As many English speakers in SA may have been, and may still be, I was initially very sceptical and even anti-AfriForum. I had a stigma against Afrikanerdom and the implied Afrikaner conservativism that comes with it. But as this country started descending more into chaos and I began learning about politics and economics in earnest, my views changed.

First, I realised that while AfriForum was not a white supremacist group, but they still had some iffy problems. Then I realised that they didn’t even have most of those ostensible problems.

What they do have is a track record of helping people across South Africa, regardless of race. The tenacity to step in and replace a failing government. The insight to reveal government plots to harm us. And above all: the courage to stand up against socialism and for property rights when so many of our parties and civic organisations have failed.

AfriForum CEO Ernst Roets appeared in Parliament on 6 September 2018 to present his arguments against property expropriation, a policy that amounts to turning this country into a socialist state.

You can watch the proceedings here. Also read Mpiyakhe Dhlamini’s eloquent defence of Roets and a further attack on expropriation without compensation here.

Roets gave an excellent defence of property rights and a damning criticism of both the expropriation policy, the planned amendment to the Constitution, and the blatantly socialist National Democratic Revolution that informs the entirety of ANC policy.

It was a stellar performance – and it was predictably met with petulant scorn by Parliament and other participants. Such behaviour is to be expected from the ANC and EFF, which have already shown their colours as full-blown Stalinists and National Socialists, but what was most disappointing was the pathetic performance by DA representatives who stated that they did not agree with anything that Roets had said.

What Roets said was a defence of private property, justified and meaningful restitution, and a stalwart attack on expropriation without compensation. If the DA disagree with that, as their representatives firmly state, then they are by severe implication in support of expropriation without compensation, as well as anti-restitution.

This is a shocking (if you’ve been optimistic about the DA so far) display of either sincere socialism in an apparently liberal party, or sheer incompetence. We can only hope that the DA representatives involved are disciplined.

In the aftermath of the speech, journalists flocked to pathetic news platforms such as News24 to not quote or interpret Roets out of context, but blatantly lie about what he said. ENCA published an article spreading the blatant lie that Roets, ostensibly, said that land was not stolen. This was clearly deceitful to anyone who watched the speech or read the transcript. But this is minor compared to the diatribe that Piet du Toit published on News24.

I struggle to put my disgust into words.

I’ve known for a long time that the media in South Africa is at best inept, and at worst, blatantly biased. But these out-and-out lies are too much. If there is any justice in this country, these journalists and media houses should be taken to task for breaking the trust of their readers.

The deceitfulness of South Africa’s media and the spitefulness of our politicians is well-known. But what is unfortunately relatively unknown are the virtues of AfriForum.

This is an organisation proving that we don’t need government to help each other and ourselves. An organisation standing up for tried and accomplished principles to guarantee a truly non-racial and prosperous South Africa.

There are very few other groups doing as much as AfriForum to help the people of this country and even less doing as much to properly oppose dictatorship and circumvent a possible civil war.

And it is for this reason that I have joined AfriForum. They deserve the support of all free-thinking South Africans, even if only to stick it to the liars and petulant children who keep demonising them, while they keep saving us from the brink of chaos.

You can join AfriForum here. I implore you to do so.

Nicholas Woode-Smith is the Managing Editor and a Co-Founder of the Rational Standard.