Boer Cemetary, Springfontein, South Africa

Source: Bigstock

The first contingent of Afrikaner refugees has arrived in Washington, D.C., to a warm welcome from senior officials in the State Department and Homeland Security. This is attracting world attention and the anger of the ANC (African National Congress) led South African government, whose spokesman argues the term “refugee” is a contrived one reflecting the “white supremacist” agenda of the Trump administration. They insist their fears for their safety are completely unfounded.

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said allegations of victimization had been quashed by police reports, “which don’t back the assertion of persecution of white South Africans on the basis of their race.”

Austrian philosopher Karl Popper’s celebrated argument that human actions, even when well-intended, invariably have undesirable and unforeseen outcomes, particularly in the context of complicated socioeconomic backgrounds, resonates at this instance. I’m not sure firebrand EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) leader Julius Malema’s intentions were “well-intended” or if he had read any of Popper’s theories when he rallied crowds around the country to his call to “kill the Boer,” but if he has, he clearly chose to ignore his warnings, because his actions and policies seem to prove Popper right.

“More and more people are finding it very difficult to disagree with the fundamental point the Trump people are making.”

I’m old enough to remember the major political scandal that unfolded in South Africa in 1977 when it was revealed that Dr. Eschel Rhoodie, then Secretary in the Department of Information led by Connie Mulder, was the mastermind behind a plan to secretly siphon money out of other ministries in an attempt to change the media landscape at home and abroad by buying influence and funding new publications that would follow a more accommodating editorial line.

At the time, virtually the entire world press was galvanized in its unbridled hostility toward the Nationalist Party government, then led by John Vorster, and toward the Afrikaners in general. I think I’m on firm ground when I suggest the “Boers” then were the most loathed ethnic group in the world, and nobody was interested in their side of the story; the jury was in and they were all adjudged guilty, complicit in an ongoing “crime against humanity.”

This view and verdict applied to a large degree to the local print media, too. The English-speaking press, much of it owned and controlled by Anglo-American corporations, was consistently critical of the regime, and indeed it was their newspapers that triggered the furor and wrought the downfall of the Vorster administration.

Incidentally, it is worth recalling that this misappropriation of funds was never designed to enrich any of the protagonists in any monetary sense; it was aimed at finding a way of burnishing the country’s tarnished image in a vain bid to bring some balance to a very one-sided narrative. But that argument did not wash with the public or the regulators; Treasury rules on allocation and expenditure of public money had been breached, and Vorster and all the main players, including Rhoodie and Mulder, were forced to resign in disgrace.

As far as I remember, this was the biggest “financial” scandal to rock the Nationalist Party in the course of its rule from 1948 to 1994. The received wisdom in the country today is that the “Nats” were incorrigibly corrupt and the ruling ANC cannot be blamed for simply following in their filthy footsteps; in other words, Apartheid is to blame for the malfeasance of the incumbents. I’m not sure this premise will survive any sort of sensible scrutiny.

But the point that bursts forth from the current uproar over the plight of the Afrikaners is that probably for the first time since the English parliamentarian Emily Hobhouse exposed Lord Kitchener’s “concentration camps” at the turn of the last century during the “Boer War” has the world media shown any empathy and understanding of the fact that they might not always be the villains. And as Popper suggested might happen, this is due to unintended consequences; in this case, of the actions of their antagonists, of which there are many, but principally Julius Malema. The huge irony is that the South African political leader most committed to destroying (possibly murdering) this particular group may have unwittingly saved it.

This is because Mr. Malema and his cohorts did not factor in a radical power transformation in the U.S. and the arrival of the Trump administration staffed by people who have a different view of the world from that of their predecessors. The big ideological shift is that they see racism as racism no matter the color of the victims’ skin, and they have concluded that any government (along with the approval of the country’s highest court) that permits their politicians to exhort their followers to kill members of a community on the basis of their race is in egregious violation of their fundamental human rights and that that targeted group is deserving of protection.

This position has infuriated Malema, the EFF, and indeed the ruling ANC, but their protestations are having a hollow ring about them as more and more people are finding it very difficult to disagree with the fundamental point the Trump people are making.

The ripple effect appears to have crossed the Atlantic, as it was with some surprise we read that even Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government has acted against Malema by denying him a visa to visit the country and address a political gathering at Cambridge University. (A mistake, in my humble opinion; I think he should have been allowed to visit, express his views, and let the British public decide.)

Coming from Starmer, this is an almost Damascene conversion; this is the same man who has consistently demonstrated his disdain for the white working class, come to his knees to show his repugnance in the face of perceived “white supremacism” in the U.S., presided over a system of “two-tier” policing aimed at targeting white “extremists” concerned about immigration, and appointed a Foreign Secretary who has committed the country to paying massive amounts of money in reparations for slavery.

Maybe Starmer and Malema should have a look at what Popper wrote as a matter of some urgency, before continuing their political careers.