‘Opportunity from heaven’: Afrikaner politician on refugee bid
FFP councillor SJ du Venage has claimed 'fear of future persecution' in his bid to join the Afrikaner refugee resettlement programme.
Black News 
A Freedom Front Plus councillor – SJ du Venage – has made headlines over his decision to join the refugee resettlement programme, out of fear of racial persecution based on his white Afrikaner ethnicity.
The politician claims to have proven a “well-founded fear of future harm”.
This follows news that another politician, former ANC MP Lawrence E McDonald, left his home in South Africa under the programme on the grounds of “racial persecution”
FF PLUS COUNCILLOR CLAIMS ‘FUTURE PERSECUTION’
According to Reuters, SJ du Venage – a former Freedom Front Plus councillor – is awaiting news on his application to the refugee resettlement programme.
The politician revealed that he had attended a seven-hour interview with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Pretoria in February to assess his eligibility.
Since then, he sold his car and home and is now living in a luxury seaside rental in Helena Bay.
“When Trump’s offer came, it was an opportunity from heaven,” he told the media outlet.
Image via Facebook
Du Venage’s application is based on his fear of future persecution based on his Afrikaner ethnicity.
He claimed that, as a politician in a far-right-wing party, activism, particularly about white farm murders, had placed a target on his back.
Unlike other applicants who state “past persecution”, SJ du Venage has based his application on a “well-founded fear of future harm”.
It comes a few weeks after former ANC-MP Lawrence E McDonald made headlines for his decision to leave his home in South Africa to live in the US as an Afrikaner refugee.
McDonald claimed in a social media post that he felt “welcome…safe…human” in his new adoptive country.
‘ACT OF COURAGE’
In a Facebook post, SJ du Venage empathised with Afrikaner people who had chosen to leave South Africa.
He shared: “To take your family, each with only one suitcase; to leave everything familiar behind; and to start over from scratch in a foreign country, state, and city, is nothing less than an act of courage, faith, and inner strength. The future of our people does not lie in fueling further suspicion between those who stay and those who leave, but rather in joining hands, strengthening one another, and standing together as one people.
He added: “Every Afrikaner who successfully settles in a new country becomes an ambassador for our people in South Africa. Everyone who remains faithful to the future aspirations of their homeland will be involved in building a new nation at the southern tip of Africa – a super Afrikaner state where we, as part of confederal states in Southern Africa, will once again govern ourselves”.
AFRIKANER GROUP: TO LEAVE OR STAY?
While many are opting to leave, Afrikaner rights group Solidariteit claimed that the refugee resettlement group is “not a viable option”.
The Cape Independence Advocacy Group has also rejected claims that minorities should be resettled in another country, and has appealed to US resident Donald Trump for diplomatic support instead.
Joost Strydom, the leader of South Africa’s whites-only town, Orania, has also called on US authorities to support “Afrikaner self-determination”.
