Brent Bozell (Foto: Brent Bozell/Facebook)
The FW de Klerk Foundation hopes that Brent Bozell, the USA’s ambassador to South Africa, will check the facts himself so that he can tell Pres. Donald Trump can report that genocide is not being committed in South Africa and that land is not being grabbed left and right.
Christo van der Rheede, the chief executive of the FW de Klerk Foundation, said on Thursday that the foundation welcomes Bozell’s stated commitment to a fact-based assessment of the challenges facing South Africa’s constitutional democracy.
Bozell officially took up his duties as ambassador this week.
The foundation urged Bozell to maintain a fact-based perspective in light of the recent international rhetoric about “genocide” and “mass land grabs”.
“Although the brutal nature of farm attacks and murders is a matter of serious national concern, it is factually inaccurate and politically polarizing to categorize these crimes as ‘white genocide’,” believes Van der Rheede.
The foundation maintains farm attacks and murders take place within a broader, national crisis of violent crime and a “criminal environment of impunity”.
“We call on Ambassador Bozell to report to President Trump that the solution does not lie in international alarmism and misinformation, but in pressure on the South African government to restore rural security and help professionalize the police for the benefit of all citizens.”
Van der Rheede says it is also very important that international partners understand that there is no lawless confiscation of white farmers’ farms in South Africa.
“We are a nation governed by laws and the foundation is ready to challenge any unconstitutional application of these laws in the Constitutional Court.”
Archive photo of Christo van der Rheede.
Van der Rheede did make it clear that the foundation is deeply concerned about the Expropriation Act of 2024.
“We consider certain provisions – specifically those that allow zero compensation – to be fundamentally ‘legally unreliable’ and as a threat to Article 25 of our Constitution.
“We encourage the US to help promote the expansion of property rights for all South Africans, especially black and brown rural dwellers living in former homelands and on mission land who do not enjoy the benefit of property rights.
“South African property owners must be supported by advocating for ‘fair and equitable’ compensation, so that the agricultural sector remains a pillar of the economy and a key player in Agoa.
“Support for the current land reform program is also of crucial importance,” says Van der Rheede.
Roadmap for ambassador
The FW de Klerk Foundation encouraged Bozell to do “in-depth research” on South Africa and talk to a wide range of South African institutions about, among other things, compliance with the Constitution, property rights, the rule of law as well as economic growth and job creation.
The foundation asks the ambassador, among other things, to ensure that the review of Agoa reflects South Africa’s commitment to its fundamental democratic values and that American companies continue to invest in South Africa so that both countries enjoy the benefit of trade agreements that are based on fairness, free market access and sustainability.