White South Africans Ask to Return to Europe

Should white South Africans have the right to “return” to Europe? One man has sparked a movement after creating a petition calling for the repatriation of white South Africans to their ancestral home.

Already gathering over 30,000 signatures, the complaints speak of targeted violence against white citizens, “The white South African population currently faces ethnic cleansing and persecutions at the hands of the ANC (African National Congress) government, the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters), and various individual anti-white aggressors.” It goes on to claim that “Over 4000 white farmers have been brutally murdered, often including torture and rape and mutilation.” The author also blames the government’s Black Empowerment Policies for harsh poverty faced by a number of white farmers.

Farm murders in South Africa are a real occurrence and a source of high tension inside the country where nearly 82% of the land is used for farming. It is true that most of the victims of farm murders are white, and these murders are on the rise.

However, the government says that these attacks are not due to racial motivation, but simply because the vast majority of farmers in South Africa happen to be white. Many have also been quick to point out that the reason for the majority white ownership is due to land grabs during colonial and apartheid eras, which left many black South Africans severely disenfranchised. Activists have also noted that fair and equal land distribution is still a major issue in the country.

Yet for many white South Africans, being a target for owning land is not an appeasement.

Further, some have claimed that the manner of torture and brutality during these murders are consistent with a hate crime. They say that not only has the government done very little to help them, but has outright covered up the number of murders. A Facebook page, called White South Africans Right to Return has been set up which uses hashtags such as #StopWhiteGenocideInSA.

However, the website Africa Check, which was created by the AFP Foundation, to aid in fact- and numbers-based reporting, says the idea that white South Africans are being uniquely targeted is simply not true. They were asked to investigate the claims of Steve Hofmeyr, a popular white South African artist, who has helped popularize the idea of white genocide. Hofmeyr claims that not only are white South Africans regularly targeted, but that his “tribe is dying.”

From Hofmeyr’s Facebook page via AfricaCheck.Org

However, when Africa Check went through the numbers (and it is well worth your time to read their methodologies) what actually emerged is a shockingly different picture:

“According to a 2003 police committee of inquiry into farm attacks, cited by Solidarity, 38.4% of farm attack victims were described as being black, coloured or Asian. TAUSA’s (Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa) figures suggest that 208 (or 13.5%) of those murdered in farm attacks between 1990 and 2012 were black. Hofmeyr’s statement that a white farmer is murdered every five days is therefore also incorrect. The claim would only be true if he included all farm attack victims of all races.”

Even further, one of the key facts presented at the top of the page shows that while murder for all races has actually gone down slightly (32.12 murdered people per 100,000 in 1970 to 30.9 people per 100,000 in 2012) only 1.8% of those murder victims were white.

It should be noted that Hofmeyr did respond to Africa Check’s article and confirmed their findings, but claimed that “perceptions” were also an important factor.

Yet despite these perceptions, it is unlikely that white South Africans will ever be allowed special dispensation to repatriate “home.” South Africans, no matter what their color of skin, are not considered European. Further, all South African passports, again regardless of skin tone, are considered equal by EU immigration officials. The likelihood that the EU would change their immigration rules based on the race or ethnicity of the passport holder would open them up to so much international ridicule, many believe the idea of repatriation is little more than a pipe dream.

Photo Credit: Johnnyhurst