Civil society organisation the Solidarity Movement said it will ask the Trump Administration to exercise pressure on African National Congress (ANC) policies, but not to punish ordinary South Africans through measures that exacerbate unemployment or harm the vulnerable.

“We do not like the ANC, but we love the country. At the same time more foreign pressure on the ANC is essential because the constitutional settlement is currently being violated, and the ANC continues to govern on its own while a government of national unity (GNU) is indeed in power,” said Solidarity Movement chairperson Flip Buys.

This comes as US President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw aid to South Africa owing to his view that the recently enacted Expropriation Act is leading to the confiscation of land.

Following Trump’s comments, which were made initially on his Truth Social account and later reinforced in a brief television interview, the South African Presidency said government had not confiscated any land.

It also underlined South Africa’s status as a “constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality”.

Uys believes the US has a “major responsibility” to ensure that constitutional promises such as property rights, mother tongue schools and universities and the abolition of racial discrimination are fulfilled, arguing that those promises were instrumental in South Africa’s 1990 constitutional settlement.

The Solidarity Movement has planned a series of diplomatic actions that will include discussions with local diplomats and visits to Washington.

Meanwhile, Afrikaner interest group AfriForum echoed Solidarity’s stance and said it will write to the US government to request that the punitive measures that Trump wants to introduce against South Africa should rather target senior ANC leaders directly and not South Africans.

AfriForum will also make an urgent request to the South African government to avert what it calls a crisis, and suggest that an amendment to the Expropriation Act be tabled to ensure the protection of property rights in South Africa.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said there were serious concerns about the impact of Trump’s punitive measures on ordinary citizens who were already buckling under economic pressure.

Meanwhile, the GOOD Party stressed on Monday the importance of “level-headed” diplomacy and “cordial engagement” with the US to protect and strengthen bilateral relations.

GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron pointed out that Trump’s statement to withhold funding to South Africa was a owing to “misrepresentations about the Expropriation Act by people who seek to protect the beneficiaries of colonial and apartheid land dispossession”.

Herron explained that as a sovereign country, and constitutional democracy, South Africa had its own political and parliamentary systems and mechanisms to establish policies and pass laws.

“The system contains adequate space for political organisations to express their ideological views, both in the law-making process and in the option of taking laws on review to the Constitutional Court,” he added.

He said political organisations appealing to US lawmakers to punish South Africa was an anti-democratic act and likened it to economic treason.

“While the likes of AfriForum and other groups, including parties which are now members of the GNU, are within their rights to argue for the retention of the apartheid-era status-quo – free speech is guaranteed by the Constitution – they have no right to place the country’s economic welfare at risk by feeding misinformation to Washington lawmakers,” he said.

The party condemned the “disinformation” efforts by AfriForum, Solidarity, and even the Freedom Front Plus and the Democratic Alliance.

“Their collective campaign has backfired and will hurt not only their members but the entire country. GOOD calls for urgent action to be taken against AfriForum, in this instance, for spreading deliberately false and inflammatory disinformation,” he said.

FAILURES

Meanwhile, ActionSA pointed to the “failures of the South African government”, which it said were well documented and seen in the “human suffering” in the country.

“These challenges are of our making as a country with a complex history of oppression followed by 30 years of misgovernance by the African National Congress that has deepened inequality. The political change that must address these challenges must come from within our country, from South Africans who determine their own future.

“Given the role that the US President plays in global affairs, it must be incumbent upon President Trump to receive more balanced counsel on matters pertaining to South Africa,” said ActionSA president Herman Mashaba.