Dr Naledi Pandor: Send AfriForum to mend SA-US relations or hold them accountable

Former minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor believes a heavy responsibility towards mending the fence in South Africa-United States should be placed at the door of lobby group AfriForum.

In recent weeks, the lobby group and its partners have faced unprecedented backlash in South Africa, accused of campaigning for US meddling in South Africa policies, and spreading misinformation to influence President Donald Trump on the conditions of Afrikaners.

IOL reported earlier this month that different organisations in South Africa have been insisting that AfriForum must be charged with treason for leading campaigns in US calling for action against South Africa’s transformation and expropriation laws. Subsequently, Trump has unleashed a raft of sanctions against South Africa, including cutting much-needed financial aid.

Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, the veteran diplomat said the actions of the US have been based on misrepresentation through untrue narratives peddled by some South Africans.

“I believe this is based on misrepresentation. For one to develop policy without checking with the official representatives of a country, the elected representatives, seems to my mind to be rather odd. Of course I don’t know on what they base their information, it is perhaps they were told horror stories by some South Africans – stories that were totally untrue," she said.

“Some of this has been put at the door of AfriForum, I don’t know if they are responsible for that, but it would appear they played a strong role in it. As loyal, patriotic South Africans, a responsibility does devolve on AfriForum to actually go and clarify that what they said was perhaps exaggerated and that we are not carrying any kind of programme against our citizens in South Africa."

Pandor, who is now chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said she does not believe AfriForum must be charged with treason.

“I wouldn’t charge them with treason but certainly I would give them an assignment, and I think those South Africans whose exports are no longer going to the US if the threat holds, they should be protesting outside the offices of AfriForum and putting all the fruit and other goods that would be wasted at the door of AfriForum and demanding payment at the same level they would have received if they were able to export to the United States of America,” she said.

“So, I think AfriForum must be held to account just as they claim that when they do their work as a civil society organisation, they are doing it in the interest of South Africans. So let them now solve this problem that they’ve caused or be made accountable for it.”

Earlier this month, IOL reported that Trump had made good on his promise to cut funding to South Africa over the government’s land expropriation policy. He also offered to resettle white farmers whose land will allegedly be expropriated.

Signing off an executive order, Trump accused South Africa’s government of “egregious actions” without providing any evidence, saying the recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 (Act) would seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.

Last month, IOL reported that in a significant development for land reform in South Africa, Ramaphosa officially signed the Expropriation Bill into law.

The landmark legislation was signed to address longstanding issues of land inequality and provide a framework for the expropriation of land without compensation.

This move is positioned as a measure to advance social justice and promote public interest in a country that is still grappling with the legacy of apartheid.

At the time, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the Bill has undergone a five-year process of public consultation and parliamentary deliberation and aligns legislation on expropriation with the Constitution of South Africa.

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

IOL

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