More than 20 000 queries crashed the e-mail server of the South African Chamber of Commerce within the United States after President Donald Trump mentioned he would prioritise white South Africans in a refugee programme, the chamber confirmed on Monday.
Trump and Pretoria are at present locked in a diplomatic row over a land expropriation act that Washington claims will result in the takeover of white-owned farms.
Expropriations with out compensation
Donald Trump, whose tycoon ally Elon Musk was born in South Africa, mentioned final Friday the legislation signed in January would “enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation”.
It permits the federal government, as a matter of public curiosity, to determine on expropriations with out compensation – however solely in distinctive circumstances.
The Afrikaners are descendants of European colonists, primarily of Dutch extraction, and are primarily engaged in farming in South Africa.
English and Afrikaner colonists dominated South Africa till 1994 below a brutal system during which the black majority had been disadvantaged of political and financial rights.
“Our email server crashed over the weekend just due to the sheer volume of inquiries we have received,” Neil Diamond, head of the South African Chamber of Commerce within the US (SACCUSA) informed AFP in an electronic mail.
“Given the scale of interest, SACCUSA estimates that this figure could represent over 50 000 individuals looking to leave South Africa and seek resettlement in the United States,” he mentioned.
Skills scarcity
Diamond warned that this might result in a expertise scarcity in South Africa that might affect agriculture and different sectors of the economic system.
“If we look at the EB-5, which is an investor visa, you need roughly about R15 to R20 million to be able to immigrate… What is alarming to us is the large volume of people that is interested in taking up this opportunity,” he mentioned.
South Africa’s international ministry has mentioned Trump’s order “lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful historical past of colonialism and apartheid.
“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship,” it added.
Trump has requested Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “prioritise humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.”
There had been no particulars of how the plan could be enacted as Donald Trump halted refugee arrivals instantly after taking workplace.
Land possession stays a contentious situation in South Africa, with most farmland nonetheless owned by white individuals three a long time after the top of apartheid.
However, some Afrikaner farmers say the brand new land legal guidelines may result in the confiscation of white-owned farms as carried out in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
The second largest social gathering in South Africa’s nationwide unity authorities, the Democratic Alliance, on Monday launched a courtroom bid to annul the land legislation, as reported by The South African website.
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