Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has issued a refutation on the claims of US President Donald Trump that the White minority in South Africa are facing genocide, describing the statement as not only untrue but an insult to Africans.
President Trump had made claims of alleged persecution and genocide of White South Africans during the visit of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the White House on Tuesday, a comment that infuriated Mahama and elicited a bitter reaction from the Ghanaian leader.
In an article entitled “Trump’s unfounded attack on Cyril Ramaphosa was an insult to all Africans,” Mahama recalled the historic injustice that permeated the Apartheid system in South Africa, saying, “if we want to solve injustices in Africa today, we cannot forget the injustices that shaped our shared history.”
He cited the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, which resulted in 69 deaths and more than 100 wounded, which sparked protests in Ghana, adding that the Soweto uprising in 1976, where hundreds of children, even those as young as 12, were shot dead by the Apartheid police, haunted him for years.
“Hundreds of children were killed in that Soweto protest alone. It is their blood, and the blood of their forebears, that nourishes the soil of South Africa,” he said.
Mahama insisted that the majority of Black South Africans today, even though they have suffered the historical injustice of colonisation and Apartheid atrocities, do not have any reason to exact revenge on the Whites, even with glaring evidence that the historical injustice of the dark days has not been adequately addressed.
He said, “The racial persecution of Black South Africans was rooted in a system that was enshrined in law.
It took worldwide participation through demonstrations, boycotts, divestments and sanctions to end apartheid so that all South Africans, regardless of skin colour, would be considered equal.
“Nevertheless, the effects of centuries-long oppression do not just disappear with the stroke of a pen, particularly when there has been no cogent plan of reparative justice.”
He pointed out that despite making up less than 10% of the population, white South Africans control more than 70% of the nation’s wealth. Even now, there are a few places in South Africa where only Afrikaners can own property, live, and work.
He said further that at the entrance to one such settlement, Kleinfontein, is an enormous bust of Hendrik Verwoerd, the former prime minister who is considered the architect of apartheid.
He frowned at the fact that another separatist town, Orania, teaches only Afrikaans in its schools, has its own chamber of commerce, and uses its own currency, the ora, strictly within its borders.
“It has been reported that inside the Orania Cultural History Museum, there is a bust of every apartheid-era president except FW de Klerk, who initiated reforms that led to the repeal of apartheid laws.
“Both Kleinfontein and Orania are currently in existence and boast a peaceful lifestyle. Why had the America-bound Afrikaners not sought refuge in either of those places?
“Had the Black South Africans wanted to exact revenge on Afrikaners, surely, they would have done so decades ago when the pain of their previous circumstances was still fresh in their minds. What, at this point, is there to be gained by viciously killing and persecuting people you’d long ago forgiven? He added.
Mahama quoted the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs as saying that half of the population of South Africa is under 29, and was born after the apartheid era. They are presumably committed to building and uplifting the “rainbow nation” and have no reason to unleash a genocide against white people.
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