'It is not correct for AfriForum to be left alone after causing such damage': ANC's Luthuli House

The ANC on Monday said it does not intend to fight AfriForum, after the lobby group led campaigns in the US calling for action against South Africa’s transformation and expropriation laws.

ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the party has not contacted AfriForum directly and has no intention of engaging with the lobby group. 

“No, we have not, and we really do not have a reason to do so because they have made their views known about what they have now turned around and say it is not all South Africans but the ANC. There isn’t any reason for us to be going to AfriForum. Our focus should be on uniting South Africans,” Bhengu-Motsiri spoke to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.

“It is very easy to be sidetracked by the utterances of AfriForum or the campaigning. We do believe, however, that South Africans should not only see them for what they represent, what we call a counter-revolutionary action and organisation.

Bhengu-Motsiri said she is aware of different organisations in South Africa seeking to pursue treason charges against AfriForum and Solidarity.

“I have heard a number of calls being made. We know that there are a number of parties in South Africa that are pursuing opening a case of treason, charging AfriForum and Solidarity with treason. All we can say is that we will not dictate or prescribe to South Africans how they need to react to this transgression, very serious transgressions to ever be experienced in a democratic South Africa,” she said.

Bhengu-Motsiri, however, emphasised that “it cannot be correct that AfriForum and those that work with them are left alone when they have caused such massive damage to the brand South Africa, national unity and our sovereignty”.

Meanwhile, IOL reported earlier that the ANC in the Western Cape on Monday said it fully supports the legal action taken by its members Eric Kweleta, Phindile George and the Khayelitsha community against AfriForum, Solidarity, and other organisations which they accuse of undermining South Africa’s democracy and unity.

“These organisations, backed by foreign interests, have engaged in misinformation campaigns, attempted to delegitimise the Government of National Unity, and fuelled racial tensions,” said ANC Western Cape provincial secretary, Neville Delport.

He said the actions of the lobby groups violate key South African laws, including the Constitution; the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act; the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Act; the Treason Act and the Electronic Communications Act.

“The ANC Western Cape will not allow divisive, foreign-backed agendas to destabilise our democracy,” said Delport.

Last week, IOL reported that US President Donald Trump has made good on his promise to cut funding to South Africa over the government’s land expropriation policy and resettle white farmers whose land will allegedly be expropriated.

In a late-night Executive Order on Friday, Trump accused South Africa’s government of “egregious actions” without providing any evidence, saying the recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 would seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.

Trump said this Act followed “countless government policies” designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fuelling disproportionate violence against “racially disfavoured landowners”.

In addition, he also accused South Africa of having taken aggressive positions towards the US and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide against Palestinians in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.

“The United States cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country or its undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests,” read the Order.

joinisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

IOL