The debate about the unfounded existential threat to Afrikaners is truly exhausting. President Ramaphosa has finally done the right thing: appoint an Ambassador with the right qualifications to help reset our deteriorating relationship with an important country in global politics, and for our economic survival and prosperity.

Why should Roelf be an Ambassador for Afrikaners, and not for all South Africans? Why is Afrikaner unemployment more important than the unemployment of any unemployed South African?

Our country should move on from the cruelty of apartheid, the discrimination, the racism, including the Afrikaner bitterness about losing the right to oppress others. The conversation from some Afrikaner quarters is never about South Africa, but always about Afrikaners.

Meanwhile, inequality is persistent and the levels of poverty are growing, mostly in black communities. As a black South African, I have never benefited from BEE. I am not immune from being a victim of crime. I am not protected from the impact of corruption on my quality of life.

My two daughters, despite their university qualifications, are not optimally employed, and they, like me, are black. These are the issues we should all be united on in fighting an incompetent and corrupt government.

There is nothing exceptional about Afrikaners, and the concerns about the current mess in our country should be a collective outcry by all South Africans, because it is not a Zulu, Pedi, Venda or Afrikaner issue.

Yes, Afrikaners, in their private capacity, have demonstrated how they can build new settlements from scratch, restore infrastructure in their communities, build colleges and have even successfully established an e-hailing service. That deserves praise and acknowledgement and is something we should all learn from and emulate.

What ruins these commendable efforts is the racial exclusivity and label. It seems to me that some Afrikaners, unlike other cultural groups, are Afrikaners first, before they are South African.

If they care so much about their culture and language, why are they self-destructing by accepting a false flag invitation to the US, where their language will not have the same status as it does in South Africa?

I do not know anyone who gets up in the morning and starts singing Malema’s Kill the Boer, and how can that be a priority for our development!

As for Roelf’s appointment, we neglected our relationship with the United States long before the Trump era, as you know. And it is time to fix it.

The road ahead will certainly not be without bumps, and what we need now is unity, and not voices that actively seek to sow discord. Inserting irrelevant Afrikaner divisions into the appointment of an Ambassador is not helpful.

Our country deserves better, and Roelf needs the support of every patriotic South African to accomplish that mission, on behalf of all of us.

Daniel Ngwepe is a consultant and a former South African diplomat in Washington 'of so iets van die aarde'.