FF+ leader Mulder backs AfriForum's bid to halt US from imposing sanctions that will hurt ordinary South Africans
While emphatic that his party has no formal links to the civil society group which works to protect Afrikaner identity, Mulder said he doesn’t believe AfriForum and trade union, Solidarity, were actively working against the country.
Freedom Front (FF) Plus leader Corné Mulder spoke to EWN at his office in Parliament, in Cape Town, on 27 February 2025. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/EWN
CAPE TOWN - The new leader of the Freedom Front Plus (FF+), Corne Mulder, says he supports moves by AfriForum to attempt to stop the United States from imposing sanctions on the country that will impact ordinary South Africans.
While emphatic that his party has no formal links to the civil society group which works to protect Afrikaner identity, Mulder said he doesn’t believe AfriForum and trade union, Solidarity, were actively working against the country.
The organisations have this week been meeting with politicians and opinion leaders in Washington over land and education legislation they perceive to be problematic.
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AfriForum CEO, Kallie Kriel, has hit back at Thursday’s utterances by President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying it was in fact, the president who’s sowing division for refusing to engage with them.
Mulder said he would not support organisations who acted to the detriment of South Africa and its people.
But he believed there was value in having Afrikaners speak up for themselves about matters that directly affect them if, for example, it stops the US from cancelling its free trade partnership with the country through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
"I think that’s more credible than a government which is expected to go there with a message perhaps to say everything is fine, there’s no problem. People would like to hear from the people they think are the most directly affected by what is perceived to be, so I think it’s positive."
Asked whether this was not an indictment on the GNU of which the Freedom Front Plus was a part, Mulder said it was the policies of the former ANC government, in particular on foreign relations, that had led to the tensions with the new Trump administration.
"The trigger for all of this is not the Expropriation Act. It’s South Africa’s international stance. And I think that’s much more important to the United States from their perspective. Rightly or wrongly so, they perceive our international positioning as a threat to their national interests."
Mulder said that AfriForum was being falsely blamed for claiming land grabs and genocide in South Africa.
He believes the misinformation to stem from other individuals and groupings who have jumped on the bandwagon of strained relations with the US.