'No white genocide in SA', says DA leader Steenhuisen

There was no white genocide in South Africa other than a very big problem with crime, DA leader John Steenhuisen said.

Steenhuisen said there were rural safety issues and farm murders were brutal in their nature.

“But if one looks at the cold, hard statistics, it's very clear where the crime problem is and who is bearing the burden of crime is not a white genocide, not at all. 

“We have white people murdered, yes, but we also have coloured and black South Africans as well as Indian South Africans and South of Asian descent that are being murdered as well,” he said when he was fielding questions from the Press Gallery Association on Thursday.

He made the comment as US President Donald Trump reiterated this week that there was a white genocide in South Africa.

According to Steenhuisen, it was clear that Trump has been fed a lie about South Africa.

“Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the hard statistics and many efforts to display that this is not the case in South Africa, that is his perception of the country.”

He said Trump has got a different agenda that he was pushing despite whatever the truth he was told.

“He is not going to believe it because he has to push that agenda. Well, there's a famous saying, that you can take a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink,” he said.

Steenhuisen also said South Africa has done a lot of things wrong in the last 20 years and made some terrible decisions.

“The Lady R, for instance, was a terrible decision for us to make, and that has angered some of our allies, including the United States.

“We have put sticks in the eyes of some of our trading partners and allies, and it has left them bewildered and angry, but to take things that are not true and turn them into a truth is simply not fair and it's not in the interests of either side.”

He said it was strategically important for the United States to have a relationship with South Africa, but the relationship must be two-way and has to have trust.

“What we saw with this exercise with Iran doesn't build trust. Bringing the Lady R here doesn't build trust, and so we also need to make sure that when we are setting out on the global stage,  we're not doing things that break trust with those who've had relationships before.”

However, he believed that the deterioration of the relationship with the US  started long before Trump came in.

“That is why it is so fundamentally important that we understand what our national interest is,  unpack that national interest in granular detail, and then use that as the decision-making matrix about how we position ourselves in international affairs.

“I think if we do that, we're genuinely not aligned, and if we filter every foreign policy decision around what is in the best interest of South Africa, its national interest, I think we'll start to make many more wiser choices around how we advance on the geopolitical stage.”

Commenting on the US stance towards South Africa, Steenhuisen said it was really unfortunate that the US was missing out on the opportunity to have a partnership with the most industrialised country on the continent and a country whose Constitution and Bill of Rights bore a strong resemblance to the values and principles that the United States purports to uphold.

“South Africa is a wonderful country. There are incredible things happening here, but yes, there are bad things happening here, just as in the United States. There are wonderful things happening there in many places, but there are also terrible things happening there.”

He said every country has its own problems, and South Africa remained a solid, good partner for the United States of America.

“Our commitment to democracy, our journey to democracy, our values in our constitution and Bill of Rights all stand out there as a beacon on the continent and to eschew a relationship with us based on false perceptions of the country that have been fed to you by people who don't act in the best interest of the country, I think it's a very sad day, and I think that the US will ultimately be the loser if they don't want to have a relationship with us in that regard.”

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za