Latest news with #ErnstRoets
The South African
3 days ago
- Politics
- The South African
Dan Corder drags Ernst Roets on 'race laws' on Piers Morgan show
Radio and TV personality Dan Corder has been praised for 'mopping the floor' with former AfriForum leader Ernst Roets on the Piers Morgan show this week. The outspoken duo were part of a panel of South Africans who debated topics like 'race laws', 'white genocide', and economic transformation in the country. Others included SABC reporter Sophie Mokoena and ex shock jock, Gareth Cliff. During the episode, Piers Morgan questioned the panel on their views of South Africa's race relations and controversial headlines in recent weeks. This comes after the countries' presidents, Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa, met for bilateral talks in the White House last week. While all the speakers agreed that there was no 'white genocide' in South Africa, Ernst Roets and Gareth Cliff claimed that there was legislation in place that discriminated against white South Africans. Sophie Mokoena – who called out President Trump for spreading misinformation – called for leaders to be held accountable for their words and actions. Dan Corder came out guns blazing against Roets's claims of '142 racist laws'. Calling out 'historical rigging' and 'privilege', he said: 'The vast majority of white South Africans have a better quality of life than the vast black South Africans could.' Corder also accused Roets of 'hilarious lying and grifting', 'He doesn't name you a single race law that genuinely has anything wrong with it…What they tried to do was deluge hundreds of laws and hope that nobody would read them. But I went through their list. 'The vast majority of the laws say there needs to be meaningful representation in South Africa to reflect our country fairly on three things: race, gender, and disability. These grifters will say that they are race laws…why aren't they calling them sexist laws…why aren't they saying that able-bodied people are completely disadvantaged?' Dan Corder went on to name one such law deemed 'racist' – the Public Services Act – which is to 'address imbalances of the past to achieve a public service that broadly represents the South African people, including representation according to race, gender and disability'. He added, 'We now have a black middle class in South Africa. Sure, it hasn't helped enough black people, and it has a long way to go. [But] the South African government has hired black people into public service and given them reliable, deserved jobs, which have lifted them out of poverty. That didnt exist [before]. There is active transformation happening with these polices'. Dan Corder also took on Ernst Roets' claims that farm murders were disproportionate to murders of other races. He said: 'Crime patterns are absolutely clear across the country, the richer and whiter you are, the less likely you are to suffer from crime. 'The poorer and blacker you are, the more likely you are 'There is no evidence of targeted race-based murders. The vast majority of murders affecting all kinds of people are particularly brutal, awful, and garish. It's not unique to farm murders. It happens all the time in all communities. He continued: 'White farmers suffer less crime than black farmers and farmers of colour because they are better protected by their wealth, which is often corollary with their race'. After the Piers Morgan Uncensored episode aired, Dan Corder soon became a trending topic on the X platform. Music producer Prince Kaybee posted: 'Lol Ernst Roets must stop defending fake news, he couldn't defend the so-called race-based laws. Dan cooked him on a two-plate stove with ease. What a marvellous display of 'beating an entitled child' if I may. DJ Mo Flava posted: 'Dan, you absolutely cooked here. Clear, concise, fact, direct'. Here's what others had to say: @XoliswaZondo: 'Well prepared. Argument brilliantly delivered. Articulation of facts backed up by statistics. Dan, you did not disappoint'. @TheRealConza: 'I am so proud of you. No emotions, no disrespect, no condescending tone, no sarcasm, just pure facts'. @Kgatishi_Lamola: 'I want to applaud you for being objective & speaking facts as they are. The truth is bigger than all of us.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 . Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp , Facebook , X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Ramaphosa survives Trump ambush over 'white genocide'
Donald Trump has proved to be the political Rottweiler of right-wing Afrikaner groups, taking their fight to South Africa's President Cyril were quick to celebrate the US president's ambush of Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, with the Solidarity Movement - which had toured the US to lobby the Trump administration - saying it welcomed the fact that South Africa's "enormous problems have been placed on the international stage".Ernst Roets, a leading personality on the Afrikaner right, showed his admiration for the US president. "Donald Trump made history today," he said in a post on X, before thanking him for showing videos of firebrand opposition politician Julius Malema singing "Shoot the Boer (Afrikaner); Shoot the farmer" - and newspaper headlines of the killing of white farmers. Solidarity's Jaco Kleynhans went further, saying Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for "putting the farm murder crisis on the international agenda".But for leading Afrikaner political columnist Pieter du Toit the ambush showed that "months and years of exaggeration, hyperbole and misinformation fed into the American right-wing ecosystem by a range of South African activists had hit its mark". Like many South Africans he praised Ramaphosa for his measured handling of the encounter in the White are angry with the right-wing groups, saying they have shown a lack of patriotism by lobbying the Trump administration to take a tough line against the critics point to the fact that South Africa has a government of national unity - made up of 10 parties from across the racial and ideological divide to tackle the nation's myriad problems - from the high crime levels that affect all races and classes, to an unemployment rate of 32%, with black people struggling the most to find most South Africans, the "rainbow nation" was on display at the White government delegation included South Africa's most senior white politician, John Steenhuisen - the agriculture minister who leads South Africa's second-biggest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA).He acknowledged South Africa had a "real safety problem", adding that it required "a lot of effort to get on top of it"."It is going to require more policing resources," he he dismissed the view that most white farmers were fleeing: "Certainly, the majority of South Africa's commercial and smallholder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work."Trump's video amplified the role of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party in South African politics by showing its leader singing the "Shoot the Boer".The party advocates the nationalisation of land, and Malema revels in chanting it at his political rallies - with Trump demanding to know why no action had been taken against him. The old protest song was once an anti-apartheid anthem, and Afrikaner lobby groups have tried to get it banned. But South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that a "reasonably well-informed person" would understand that when "protest songs are sung, even by politicians, the words are not meant to be understood literally, nor is the gesture of shooting to be understood as a call to arms or violence".Instead, the song was a "provocative way" of advancing the EFF's political agenda - which was to end "land and economic injustice". Ramaphosa pointed out to Trump that South Africa was a democracy - and while the government was "completely against" what Malema does, the EFF had a right to exist under the constitutionThe EFF fell to fourth spot in last year's parliamentary election, with Ramaphosa refusing to give Malema political oxygen by making a deal with him to form a coalition government after last year's parliamentary election failed to produce an outright winner. Steenhuisen told Trump that the DA, a centre-right party which stands for a free market economy, joined the government to keep the EFF out, and to help tackle South Africa's problems. "This government, working together, needs the support of our allies around the world so that we can strengthen our hand, grow our economy and shut the door forever on that rebel [Malema] getting through the doors of Union Buildings [the seat of government]," he said. 'Uncomfortable to watch' Steenhuisen and Ramaphosa hold the middle-ground in South African politics - the Afrikaner right-wing and the EFF are at the promised to champion unity, invoking the name of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela - the symbol of racial reconciliation in South Africa after the end of white-minority rule in 1994. But some Afrikaners feel they can no longer live in South Africa, and Trump has offered them refugee status. Nearly 60 of them have been resettled in the US. Trump has given a boost to the right-wing, with some of them gathering outside the US embassy in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, in February with placards that read: "Make South Africa Great Again" - an adaptation of Trump's "Make America Great Again". South Africa's Land Reform Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso acknowledged that the meeting in the Oval Office was "uncomfortable to watch"."There is no genocide in South Africa... There is crime in South Africa like in other countries and this crime affects many people, " he told the BBC's Newshour applauded Ramaphosa for keeping his composure, rather than firing back at Trump when he ambushed him, with guns blazing. Some also commended the South African president for his tactics - bringing along famous Afrikaner golfers to the meeting to defuse invited to talk, Ernie Els took out his South African passport to prove his patriotism - and spoke of his respect for Mandela after he managed to unite the country at the end of apartheid - but said he wanted to see South Africa flourish with America's Goosen perhaps added more fuel to the fire, speaking of how difficult it was for his brother to farm outside the northern town of Polokwane - explaining how he faced a "constant battle" with people trying to "burn the farm down and to chase you away".Though he ended by saying that despite their fear of crime, "the guys live a great life, despite what's going on".Billionaire businessman Johann Rupert, also an Afrikaner, pointed out that the highest murder rate in South Africa was in the townships of Cape Town, where most residents are black or coloured - as mixed-race people are known in South Africa - and are at the mercy of violent Zingiswa Losi, president of South Africa's largest trade union, told Trump about the devastating situation in rural areas "where the black majority are"."You will see women, elderly, being raped, being killed, being murdered," she said. She urged the delegations to address the problem through trade - and creating employment."The problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily about race, but it is about crime."It is a sentiment with which most South Africans would agree. More on South African-US relations: Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?Do Afrikaners want to take Trump up on his South African refugee offer?Racially charged row between Musk and South Africa over StarlinkIs it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats?What's really driving Trump's fury with South Africa? Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
