Texas Young Republicans Bat for Afrikaners

The Young Republicans of Texas, the youth wing of that party in the state, have extended a gesture of solidarity to South Africa’s Afrikaner minority.

According to a statement released yesterday the Young Republicans said: “Afrikaners have been the targets of incitement of violence, racially discriminatory laws by the ANC-led government, threats to private property through the Expropriation Act, and farm murders.”

The gesture reflects President Donald Trump’s emphasis of what his administration has described as systematic discrimination against Afrikaners – a concern that has seen Washington go as far as to offer refugee status to people with Afrikaner origins.

According to reports, over 2% of South Africa’s Afrikaners have explored the option of exiting the country for America.

The Young Republicans explain they are acting in support of: “a valuable relationship with a fellow Christian people with Western values at the southern tip of Africa”.

They also appealed to senior Texas Republicans to: “take a firm and moral stand against the human rights abuses” happening in South Africa and to: “extend a hand of friendship, support and cooperation” to their friends in the Afrikaner community of South Africa.

The Common Sense has sought to stress in its editorial writing that South Africa is a broadly centre-right Christian conservative society. The newspaper has argued that comfortably 70% of South Africa’s people fall into that category.

Unlike the Western world, where a deep ideological divide between left and right has split opinion, South Africa’s society is strongly united on basic values across lines of race, class, history, socio-economic conditions, and policy – and that the bulk of those values would resonate strongly in American Republican circles.