Freedom Front Plus’s Dr. Wynand Boshoff argues for collective Afrikaner land rights amidst ongoing land reform discourse, drawing parallels to historical persecution.
A recent parliamentary debate on land reform and rural development in South Africa saw a Freedom Front Plus (FF+) Member of Parliament, Dr. Wynand Boshoff, deliver a provocative address that has ignited discussions about the future of land ownership and Afrikaner identity in the nation.
Speaking at the National Assembly Mini Plenary 6, Dr. Boshoff, chief spokesperson for land reform and rural development for FF+, warned of “danger” for the Afrikaner community if their collective identity and right to land are not recognized.
Dr. Boshoff began by acknowledging the department’s “impossible” mandate of redressing historical land injustices with an annual budget of approximately R10 billion.
He then delved into the 1994 settlement that ushered in democratic South Africa, characterizing it as a bargain where the majority accepted slow land reform in exchange for immediate political power, while the minority (Afrikaners) traded self-determination for property retention.
He described this as a “dishonorable decision” by the minority, leading to the “de-constitution” of Afrikaners as a collective and the end of minority rule.
While acknowledging the end of minority rule as a positive development that “should have happened long ago,” Dr. Boshoff asserted that it came at a price: “no land in South Africa is white land anymore or Afrikaner land anymore. It is just individual land.”
The core of Dr. Boshoff’s concern, centers on what he termed an “Afrikaner problem” currently evolving in South Africa. He argues that according to public discourse “Afrikaners are nothing but land thieves who contributed nothing to South Africa but oppression,” a sentiment which is “verbalized repeatedly” by users on social media fueled by political figures such as EFF’s Julius Malema and MK’s Andile Mngxitama.
Drawing a stark and controversial parallel, Dr. Boshoff stated, “if you ask the Jews about the 1930s in Germany, when you are criminalized as a nation, as a cultural group, as an ethnicity, then you are very near to danger and that is time to secure yourself.”
He proposed two avenues for Afrikaner security: entrenching individual ownership, which he noted is currently “frustrating the land reform process,” or, more significantly, entrenching themselves as a collective. This, he argued, would involve recognizing their collective identity and demanding “recognition of our collective identity as Afrikaners, also with a right to land.”
Dr. Boshoff further suggested that certain global problems, like the Sahrawi issue in Morocco and the Palestinian problem in Israel, “can only be solved by self-determination.”
While concluding his statement, “The Afrikaner problem in South Africa can only be solved by…[self-determination]”, he was interrupted by other members shouting various statements including: “What is the Afrikaner problem?”
“I am from Africa and I have the freedom and I demand it,” Dr. Boshoff concluded.
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