It is clear that the international community is becoming increasingly aware of the challenges that minorities in South Africa such as Afrikaners are facing, as well as the kind of solutions that the institutions of the Solidarity Movement are coming up with to address these challenges. This is the overall observation of the representatives of the Afrikaner Foundation and AfriForum who have just returned from a support raising visit to the USA.

During this visit Ernst Roets, Executive Director of the Afrikaner Foundation and Ernst van Zyl, Head of Public Relations at AfriForum, participated in various conferences, functions and network discussions. Two highlights of the visit were the NatCon Conference in Washington, D.C. (also known as NatCon 4), at which Roets was a speaker, and the launch of the Afrikaner Foundation in New York at an event hosted by the New York Young Republicans. On both occasions Roets referred to the South African government’s reckless policy framework and the solutions Afrikaners find in these circumstances to create a free, safe and prosperous future at the southern tip of Africa. In this regard, the emphasis fell on the establishment of a network of community institutions.

Roets said that it is necessary to bring the type of problems with which minorities in South Africa such as Afrikaners are confronted with to the attention of the international community, for the very reason that there has been a perception for quite some time that the South African political dispensation has become a kind of gold standard which is followed by the rest of the world, while the opposite is true in many respects. “However, it is far more important to talk about solutions than talking about problems. We have experienced that it is especially through our approach to solutions and our optimism about the future that Afrikaners are being rediscovered by the international society, but in the Western world in particular,” he added.

Van Zyl said that the sincere interest in and admiration for Afrikaners’ state-proof solutions have increased dramatically abroad, especially among Americans and Europeans. “The saying “ʼn boer maak ʼn plan” (literally translated, meaning a farmer makes a plan) has expanded from being a local saying to an international one. It is encouraging to know that our successes and what we are building not only inspire and give our people in South Africa hope, but also do so for people abroad,” Van Zyl concluded.

The Afrikaner Foundation is a new institution in the broader Solidarity Movement and is focused on mobilising international support.