Charlize Theron roped into Afrikaner 'refugee' backlash
Mzansi has been reminded about Charlize Theron's quip about her mother tongue, Afrikaans, after a group of 49 Afrikaner 'refugees' arrived in the US this week.
The group was part of the first batch of white South Africans who were granted refugee status abroad thanks to US President Donald Trump's Executive Order.
This was based on his false beliefs that the South African minority group were victims of 'racial discrimination'.
This week, 49 Afrikaner 'refugees' touched down in the US as part of Trump's refugee resettlement plan, first announced via an Executive Order in February.
The group was made up of white South African families who claimed that they were victims of 'farm attacks'.
TV and radio personality Dan Corder noted how the number was close to the figure highlighted by Theron in 2022.
In a clip posted on his social media platforms, he said, 'Remember, Charlize reported that there were only 44 Afrikaners left in the world. Which means they've actually gone up from 44 to 49. They found five more.
He jokingly continued: 'That's an 11% population increase in just three years. The Afrikaans population has exploded. Well done, guys!'
In the comments section, others continued with the running joke:
'At least the US will now have a rugby team.'
'There goes the biltong secret recipe.'
'Is Afrikaans and Afrikaners in SA now extinct?'
Back in 2022, Charlize Theron – a Benoni-born Afrikaner and now US citizen – courted controversy over her casual comments about her mother tongue, Afrikaans.
The apparent 'joke' was made in an interview with the podcast SmartLess.
Chatting to podcast hosts Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman, and Will Arnett, Charlize spoke about learning English when she moved to the US at the age of 19 years old.
She then claimed that she had to learn English 'from scratch'.
And it seems that while Charlize still speaks Afrikaans to her mother Gerda, it's not a language she hears often. In comments that irked her home country, she added, 'There are about 44 people still speaking it. It's definitely a dying language; it's not a very helpful language.'
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