US Refuge-Seeking White Saffas ‘Crash’ Email Servers’ Amid Resettlement Inquiries
- Emails from white South Africans have poured into the US since President Donald Trump's refugee offer to Afrikaner farmers
- The SA Chamber of Commerce in the US (SACCUSA) confirmed the receipt of over 20,000 inquiries for resettlement to the US
- The chamber warned of a skills shortage in SA and said it expected the number of SA citizens inquiring to exceed 50,000
Source: Twitter
Tshepiso Mametela is a seasoned journalist at Briefly News. A Head of Current Affairs, Mametela reported live from the presidential inauguration of Cyril Ramaphosa and has written articles on politics, crime, courts, accidents and other topics, including sports, at The Herald and Opera News SA, among others.
SOUTH AFRICA — The floodgates have opened, and it's thanks to over 20,000 eager white South Africans knocking on the United State's door to take up refugee status in that country.
The deluge came full circle after US President Donald Trump's express offer to resettle Afrikaners, which he made official after signing an executive order on Friday, 7 February 2025, to cut funding to SA.
US Chamber of Commerce inundated
The move is underpinned by the US's concerns over the country's land laws.
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On Thursday, 23 January, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Bill, giving the government the ability to acquire a private individual's property in the public interest after equitable compensation.
Previously, there were plans to expropriate the land without compensation.
However, in exceptional circumstances, the government could still pursue expropriations without compensation under the law in the public interest.
According to a November 2017 Land Audit report, whites own 26,663,144 ha or 72% of farms and agricultural holdings by individual landowners.
However, some Afrikaner farmers fear the new land laws could lead to the confiscation of white-owned farms akin to Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe.
SA-born tech billionaire and close Trump ally Elon Musk has been a vocal proponent of a white exodus.
Musk, contrary to a recent statement from Ramaphosa clarifying the supposedly controversial land seizure law, claimed the Expropriation Bill would mean SA could seize Afrikaners' agricultural property without compensation.
In addition to the land question, which Washington said would result in the takeover of white-owned farms, the US has taken issue with SA for the case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), filed on 29 December 2023 after alleging that the latter's conduct had genocidal characteristics.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), in November 2024, subsequently issued arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's ex-Defence Minister Yoav Galant, and Hamas battle chief Mohammed Deif.
Since Trump's announcement, over 20,000 inquiries reportedly flooded into the SA Chamber of Commerce in the US (SACCUSA), crashing the email server.
SACCUSA head Neil Diamond the chamber's email server crashed in the first weekend since the offer due to the sheer scale of the inquiries.
"Given the interest, the chamber estimates that the figure of 20,000 could [exceed] 50,000, which is the number of individuals looking to leave SA for resettlement in the US," said Diamond.
However, he had an ominous warning about the potential harm of the exodus.
"It could [invariably] lead to a skills shortage that would impact agriculture and other sectors of the SA economy," he said.
"You need about R15 to R20 million to immigrate [and], alarmingly, is the large volume of those interested in the opportunity".
Trump ordered the US State Department and Homeland Security Secretary to prioritise admission and resettlement for Afrikaners through the Refugee Admissions Programme.
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In a related story, Briefly News reported that Trump began his newest tenure at the helm of the world's most powerful economy with strong declarations.
Chief among them is effecting wholesale changes to the pattern of how global businesses interact with the United States.
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Source: Briefly News
