‘We are privileged’: liberal Afrikaners reject Trump’s ‘white genocide’ claims

Daryl Hardy (right) of the Afrikaner cross-cultural campaign group Betereinders, with Jamela Vuma, and a billboard Hardy designed in response to Donald Trump offering white South Africans refugee status. Photograph: supplied

For some white Afrikaner South Africans, Donald Trump’s offer of refugee status in the US has been seen as a godsend. For others, it has provoked anger and frustration that they are being falsely portrayed as victims of a “white genocide”, 31 years after their community’s own oppressive minority rule ended.

In February, Trump signed an executive order claiming Afrikaners, who make up about 4% of South Africa’s population, or about 2.5 million people, were victims of “unjust racial discrimination”. The order cut aid to the country and established a refugee programme for white South Africans. The first group arrived in May.