Enough is enough! Talk to everyone! Include everyone! We are Afrikaans! I am an Afrikaner!
The ANC held what were described as 'hush-hush' talks on 6 May 2025 with a so-called 'Afrikaner Leadership Network', facilitated by the PAC.
What a shame for the ANC to hold one-sided discussions in isolation with only Solidarity, AfriForum, the SA Agri Initiative and the Afrikanerbond on urgent issues in the country. And not even one woman in the mix!
Do we really still have to ask this question: 'Who is the Afrikaner?' Does Afrikaner in today's context still only refer to one demographic, as this one-sided meeting would seem to suggest?
Our country's Constitution is for everyone. This wilful act is a deliberate snub to the broader Afrikaner community that reflects a rich variety of Afrikaner identities with Afrikaans as their mother tongue, myself included; communities that include brown, white, black and Indian South Africans.
It is dangerous for the governing party to only meet with one group whose mother tongue is Afrikaans, who call themselves Afrikaners — Afrikaners who in our 31-year-old democracy still enjoy all the privileges from the previous dispensation — on urgent matters affecting everyone in the country.
Kill the Boer
I wholeheartedly agree that 'Kill the Boer' should not be sung at all, because farmers don't only consist of the white demographic. We also have many successful black and brown farmers in our country.
As a true Afrikaner, I therefore consider this song inappropriate and extremely offensive. Surnames like mine — 'Le Roux' — also confirm my and many others' identity as Afrikaners, as French Huguenots enslaved our Khoi great-grandmothers and fathered children with them who looked like them, yet rejected them as their offspring.
Furthermore, South African history scholars also hold the view that the term Afrikaner was widely used to describe local creole people of mixed Khoi, San, Dutch, Baster, Griqua and other colonial-born individuals during the time of the VOC's colonisation of the Cape.
The ANC is happy to talk to one group of Afrikaners, but refuses to have in-depth discussions with the Khoi/San/Nama — the first true Afrikaners — who are still being excluded and getting the short end of the stick.
My greatest fear is that we are moving further and further away from a South African identity toward nationalism, which completely contradicts our country's Constitution. Our 'leaders' are having talks that do not focus on the future and wellbeing of our children.
Let me say it loud and clear: Just stop, please! I am a proud speaker of Afrikaans within a diverse society that recently served more than 15,000 South Africans in Afrikaans over a weekend at Artscape during the Suidoosterfees, and followed this up with a children's festival in Afrikaans for 12,000 children!
We at Artscape are also already busy with our isiXhosa High School Festival for the thousands of pupils in our province whose mother tongue is isiXhosa.
We include all Afrikaners – women and children. We leave no one behind! Why do certain 'white' organisations continue to exclude brown Afrikaners, and also other white Afrikaners who are not part of their circle?
Secrecy and exclusion
The secrecy and exclusion of the larger Afrikaans community baffles me. Why continue with one-sided talks about urgent issues? What is more urgent than the future of our children?
Enough is enough! Talk to everyone! Include everyone! We are Afrikaans! I am an Afrikaner!
The time is ripe for the establishment of an alternative and inclusive Afrikaner movement consisting of all Afrikaans speakers regardless of their ethnic background, which is based on the values of the Constitution and that will focus on and help to get the new South Africa back on the track that we so enthusiastically set in motion in 1994.
Let us stand together against corruption. Let us stand together for justice for all, including the disabled.
Let us learn from the proactivity of a country like Kenya, which, with its Disability Bill, enshrines the rights to education, employment, health services and accessible public spaces for persons with disabilities, with a clear mandate to national and regional governments to implement these provisions.
Let us learn from and support organisations like Lief en Leed for people with disabilities, which was started by people with disabilities in Mamre to empower all people, people who struggle daily just to survive.
We as citizens of the country must not keep quiet, and must raise our voices at all times to practise inclusivity at all levels. This is what we need to focus on in South Africa. DM
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