PRETORIA, South Africa—The lines creasing Wilhelm Snyman’s sun-scorched face make him look much older than 46.
“It’s also the stress of the past six years that has made me look like an ‘ou toppie’ [old man],” he told The Epoch Times near the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa.
Snyman lost his job in the computer industry in 2019 and said he has been unable to find permanent work since then.
“One day, the boss called me in and told me he had to retrench me and some other white guys,” he said. “He had to replace us with black employees because of the government’s affirmative action policies. Fortunately, my wife still has a job—but it’s humiliating as a man to sit at home every day doing nothing, and just keeping busy with an odd job here and there.”
The executive order accuses South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government of “race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation” and a “shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights.”
Trump also suggested that the United States should help resettle Afrikaners. His order stated that his administration would “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees” for those “who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.”
Snyman said: “I’ll do what it takes to get to America, to build a new life for my family. There, we won’t be despised because we’re white.”
Trump said policies in South Africa are “designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business” and alleged that “hateful rhetoric and government actions [are] fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.”
Ramaphosa responded that his government’s policies are designed to redress the imbalances of South Africa’s apartheid past, when white people were favored in all sectors of society. He denied that white residents are being targeted in a campaign of racial violence.
Ramaphosa said white South Africans remain the most privileged citizens in the country.
“That is true,” said Hermann Pretorius, spokesperson for the Institute of Race Relations, a research group studying shifts in South African society. “But what Ramaphosa said doesn’t mean that hundreds of thousands of white people aren’t poor and unemployed. I can take you right now to squatter camps where the inhabitants are almost exclusively white.”
Pretorius said many white residents blame the affirmative action and black economic empowerment policies of Ramaphosa’s African National Congress, the biggest party in a coalition government, for making them feel “marginalized and unwanted” in South Africa.
“These are the Afrikaners who will try to get to America courtesy of Mr. Trump’s order,” he said.
Multiple groups lobbying for Afrikaner rights thanked the U.S. leader for his offer, but said most Afrikaners would remain in South Africa because they are dedicated to building the country, despite its many problems.
Again, the headlines flashed around the world. “South Africa’s Afrikaners turn down Trump’s refugee offer,” one read.
Another read, “No thanks: White South Africans turn down Trump’s immigration offer.”
However, at the U.S. Embassy, Suzette Steyn, 27, said the “so-called Afrikaner groups don’t have a right” to speak for the nation’s 4.5 million Afrikaners.
“If they are happy in a country where you are made to feel terrible just because you are white, and you cannot find a job because you are white, and you cannot sleep because you worry if criminals are going to break into your home and rape and kill you, then so be it,” she told The Epoch Times.
“I am sorry, but there is nothing for me to build in South Africa, and if I can go to America thanks to President Trump, I will.”
Her friend interrupted with a shout of “We are Trump’s Afrikaners!” that sent ripples of amusement through the crowd.
Kallie Kriel, CEO of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, told The Epoch Times that his organization had so far received almost 30,000 inquiries from Afrikaners indicating interest in claiming refugee status in the United States.
Gary Eisenberg, one of South Africa’s top immigration attorneys, told The Epoch Times that it will not be a simple process and that Trump’s invitation is not as open as it sounds.
“There are many, many logistical hurdles,” he said.
Trump’s order tasks U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem with formulating a plan to facilitate the resettlement of Afrikaners through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).
But another executive order from Trump suspended the program on Jan. 20, Eisenberg said.
“USRAP is the very route that Afrikaner refugees would need to follow, but it’s gone,” he said. “Its suspension means there’s now an indefinite ban on admission of refugees. Are the U.S. authorities going to circumvent this ban just for white Afrikaners? There’s no sign of that happening.”
U.S. immigration lawyer Karen-Lee Pollak said if Trump reinstates the refugee program, the plan involving Afrikaners would still be complicated.
“There are many details that need to be explained, including what the definition of an Afrikaner is,” she told The Epoch Times.
Pollak, who is based in Dallas and experienced in assisting people claiming refuge and asylum in the United States, said it usually takes 18 to 24 months for that process to unfold. She said the norm is for applicants to confirm status as a refugee by receiving a referral letter from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Following that, an applicant needs to secure an interview with a refugee officer from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“The would-be refugee would have to make a very compelling case about why they’re applying for refugee status,” Pollak said. “This means hard evidence that their lives are in danger, and would continue to be in danger, if they stayed in South Africa.”
Both Snyman and Steyn, joined by a chorus of Afrikaners in the Pretoria heat, said this will not be a problem.
“When I used to drive a nice Mercedes, I was hijacked, and I still have all the paperwork concerning that case,” Snyman said.
Steyn said: “This is South Africa! We live in fear of our lives every day. Go to any South African and they’ll tell you a story of how crime has affected them. Surely that’s enough to get refugee status?”
South Africa has some of the highest rates of violent crime in the world, with murder, rape, and armed robbery particularly prevalent.
Pollak said it is important to note that should U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services grant Afrikaners refugee status based on claims of past persecution or fears of future persecution in South Africa, Afrikaners could jeopardize their immigration status in the United States by traveling back to South Africa.
The Afrikaners gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria said they are willing to say goodbye to the country of their birth, and to friends and family.
“Ever heard of computers and Zoom? And WhatsApp?” a young man clad in tattered black jeans and a torn baseball cap said.
Elmari Viljoen, 33, said: “South Africa just doesn’t feel like home anymore.
“It is so ironic that a leader in a country so far away acknowledges our struggles, when we are invisible to the leaders right here in our backyard.”
Snyman echoed the sentiment.
“If I get out, I’ll never come back,” he said. “‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is a ‘lekker’ [great] tune.”
