AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel has hit back at criticism from an old adversary, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, who had claimed that the minority rights body was “stealing stupid Afrikaners’ money”.

Noting that Malema’s own conduct was hardly beyond reproach – and that he had been abetted in his attack on AfriForum by parts of the media – Kriel penned an open letter to set out the organisation’s management of its resources and the achievements it has recorded.

AfriForum has a professional staff of some 182 people, along with 10 000 volunteers and around 300 000 members. Contributions from its members gives it a monthly income of some R22.6 million. Kriel wrote: “This shows that smaller contributions by thousands of ordinary people make it possible to build a better present and future on a larger scale.”

AfriForum has received unqualified audit opinions each year since its establishment – a claim that only about 10% of municipalities are able to make.

Kriel went on to argue that AfriForum’s aims have often been geared at providing communities with resilience as the state failed in its responsibilities. These were aimed at creating “a better present and future for our communities and our descendants by creating do-it-yourself solutions,” Kriel said.

Its work thus took two forms: community building and acting as a watchdog, Kriel said.

As a community builder, Kriel wrote: “Over the past six years AfriForum has been able to spend R1.6 billion on self-do projects as countermeasures against [African National Congress] maladministration. Approximately 70% of this (or R1.15 billion) has been used for local communities, security initiatives, and self-do actions. The remaining 30% has been spent on our watchdog function, legal proceedings, and campaigns.”

Nevertheless, AfriForum recognised that its efforts would not replace the function and misused resources of the state. Hence the watchdog role.

Specifically, AfriForum supports 177 neighbourhood and farm watches; has established numerous teams to support maintenance and service delivery in communities where the government has failed; undertakes litigation and private prosecution, some directed at demanding transparency and accountability from the government, others ensuring that wrongdoers are brought to justice; and maintains programmes for cultural and intellectual maintenance.

The broader Solidarity movement, of which AfriForum is part, meanwhile, was investing in Afrikaans educational institutions (including an Afrikaans-language university and a vocational college), maintaining Afrikaner heritage sites, building professional networks, providing financial assistance for studies, and running an Afrikaans-language media body.

Kriel commented further: “AfriForum will continue to build. We do not need the permission of the usual suspects to do so. We will not be deterred by lies or propaganda; on the contrary, every attack motivates us to work harder, build faster, and become stronger.”

Despite the frequent hostility of large parts of the media and South Africa’s political actors, AfriForum represents perhaps the country’s most impressive example of civil society organisation, and a highly practical response to the marginalisation of minority cultures and state retreat.

Anecdotal evidence from social media strongly suggests that many South Africans, across the racial and language spectrum, find its ethic of self-help and institution-creation a highly attractive one.