GOOD Statement by Brett Herron ,
GOOD Secretary General
06 March 2025
The DA’s decision to double down on Afriforum’s visit to the White House was not about the good of the country but about retaining the White vote in the next election.
The party has sought to position its gambit as an attempt to understand President Trump’s problems with South Africa, but more revealing about its intentions is what it hasn’t said about the visit.
It hasn’t said that the party – and member of the South African government – had sought to counter Afriforum and Solidarity’s misinformation about the alleged victimisation of White citizens. Nor did it mention the context of post-apartheid inequality in South Africa, or defend the Constitutional imperatives to reduce poverty and foster dignity for all.
Instead, it relied on Afriforum’s talking points: It “remains resolute in opposing the ANC’s divisive, race-based policies,” it said in a statement announcing the visit. And it repeated its call to revise South Africa’s foreign policy agenda.
What the DA was doing was simply grabbing the opportunity to attract publicity by claiming common ground and common purpose with the US’s anti-diversity, anti-inclusivity, anti-redress and anti-justice agenda.
The visit will do nothing to advance South Africa’s interests, while handsomely serving the DA, Afriforum, Solidarity, Trump’s divisive identity agenda.
It was an act of poor political judgment and clumsiness, revealing the DA’s struggles to balance the national interests, as a member of the GNU, with the interests of those who vote for it – which includes Afriforum members and supporters.
Current US policy, and statements by its President, make it improbable that South Africa – and Africa’s – current preferential trade agreement, AGOA, will survive in anything like its current form beyond its September 2025 sell-by date.
But global politics is speeding along and much could happen over the next six months.
Advancing South African interests in this period requires State to State engagement aimed at developing understanding and trust. Lickspittle visits to the White House to compare anti-woke notes achieves the opposite.
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