South Africa's Unfolding Crisis: An Urgent Call for Decentralisation and Self-Governance

In a recent interview with the Daily Caller in Washington, D.C., Dr. Ernst Roets, Executive Director of Lex Libertas, shed light on the complex and increasingly dangerous situation facing South Africa, particularly the Afrikaner minority. Roets, who recently engaged with media and various role players on behalf of Lex Libertas in the United States, argues that the nation's severe challenges—including violent crime, economic collapse, and minority persecution—are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a deeper, systemic issue.

Understanding the Cultural Kaleidoscope of South Africa

During this tour, engagement was primarily based on two reports recently published by Lex Libertas: the Reclaiming Freedom report, which outlines the crisis in South Africa and practical steps the U.S. could take in response, and the Truth Be Told report, which shares a range of personal testimonies from victims of farm attacks, land seizures, and racial discrimination..

The Reclaiming Freedom report makes it clear that viewing South Africa merely as a "black versus white" issue is a gross oversimplification and a distortion of reality. The country is exceptionally diverse, with 11 official languages (12 if sign language is included), and is nearly comparable in size to Western Europe but far more ethnically varied. In fact, South Africa could accurately be described as one of the most diverse regions globally. It is home to a multitude of cultural communities and even different civilisations, including African, Western, Jewish and various Asian communities.

The historical presence of Afrikaners is a crucial point. Often mistakenly labelled as recent white colonialists, Afrikaners, who descend from Dutch, French, and German settlers, have resided in the region for nearly 400 years. Their history dates back to the 1600s with the establishment of a refreshment station by the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope. Afrikaners are undoubtedly indigenous to South Africa, having no other country of origin and having developed their own language (Afrikaans) and culture there through a blend of European and local influences. Their ancestors encountered what is today generally described as black South African groups (thus, Bantu-speaking groups, as opposed to the Khoi and the San, which are also often referred to as the “Bushmen”), such as the Xhosa, more than a century after their initial settlement and about 1,000 kilometres away from Cape Town. This was at a time when many black African tribes were also migrating into the region from northern Africa. Historically, Afrikaners, as evidenced by the manifesto of Great Trek leader Piet Retief, were interested in cooperation, not subjugation or slavery.

The Great Trek in the 1830s saw the Afrikaners move eastward, establishing various Boer republics on land that was mostly bought or unsettled, leading to both conflicts and instances of cooperation with other communities. The discovery of diamonds and gold eventually led to the Anglo-Boer Wars, culminating in the unification of British colonies, Boer republics, and a variety of African kingdoms and territorial arrangements into what became known as the Union of South Africa in 1910. The apartheid policy, instituted by the National Party in 1948, followed this unification.

Yet, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the belief that the “End of History” has dawned, implying that mankind has achieved “the final stage of human development”, which meant that the global standardization on liberal democracy was inevitable, South Africa was structured accordingly during the 1990s. As a result, the various groups that reside in South Africa are now governed as a collective under a unitary state.

Understanding this history is vital to grasping the Afrikaner plight and the solutions Lex Libertas proposes.

The Multifaceted Crisis: Symptoms of a Deeper Problem

The report categorises South Africa's current crisis into three main symptoms:

• * Destructive Policy Framework: The current government's policy positions are driven by an ideology of race-based redistribution, which has failed wherever implemented. For instance, according to the government’s own data, 90% of commercially redistributed farms have failed, turning into subsistence farms or squatter camps, yet the government's response is to double down on these policies.
• * General State Collapse: The government is failing to perform its most basic functions. South Africa's murder rate is 45 per 100,000 per year, significantly higher than the global average of six. The country endures widespread rolling blackouts, costing the economy an estimated $50 million per day. Water infrastructure is in disarray, with 40% of water lost to leaks and theft, 46% contaminated, and 67% of treatment facilities on the verge of collapse.
• *Persecution of Minorities: South Africa currently has over 140 race laws that, while termed "black economic empowerment," primarily target the white minority without genuinely empowering black people. There are explicit threats from those in power to confiscate private property belonging to white people. Furthermore, the "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer" chants, which are actively encouraged by politicians, are protected by the justice system, with the South African Human Rights Commission and Constitutional Court declaring it "protected speech," despite farmers literally being killed.

The Root Cause: Centralisation in a Diverse, Poor Country

The report makes it clear that these symptoms stem from a fundamental flaw in South Africa's political system, an ideological experiment conceived in the 1990s. The belief then was that liberal democracy and individual rights alone could manage diversity, overlooking communal and cultural dynamics. The core problem is that South Africa is a very large, very diverse, and very poor country (with over 40% unemployment according to the narrow definition). Within this context, a highly centralised political system allows a disconnected ruling elite to blame the country's problems on prosperous minorities, akin to the treatment of Jews in the 1930s.

Lex Libertas: Advocating for Law and Freedom Through Decentralisation

Founded in March as the "Pioneer Initiative" and officially launched as Lex Libertas (Latin for "law and freedom") in May, this new institution acts as both a think tank and an advocacy group. Its vision is to achieve a viable political dispensation for all the peoples of South Africa. Lex Libertas believes the solution lies in decentralising the political system and enabling communities to have self-governance, thereby shifting the burden of care from a failing state to individual and communal responsibility.

In the Reclaiming Freedom report, Lex Libertas urges the U.S. and its allies to demand the implementation of key reforms by the South Africa governm- itemviolence against minority communities.

Lex Libertas stresses that these interventions should be aimed at fostering stability, freedom, and peace, not encouraging sedition. He believes tangible change is unlikely to originate solely from within the South African government due to its hybrid nature of socialist ideology and the desperate need to cling to power. Increased pressure, both internal and external, is therefore essential.

Strategic Interventions and the American Interest

• If the South African government fails to meet these terms, Lex Libertas advocates for strategic international interventions, including:
• * Public and diplomatic pressure from outside forces, notably the United States.
• * Targeted sanctions against government leaders as opposed to sanctions against the country as a whole.
• * Exemption of tariffs on companies that do not adopt Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies.
• * Strict preconditions on trade agreements and extension of loans.
• * Pressure for the recognition of the pursuit of self-governance in South Africa as a legal and legitimate endeavour.
• *Tangible support and protection for change actors.

Lex Libertas does not expect the American government to "fix" South Africa. However, it argues that supporting its cause aligns with the "America First" agenda and is in the US's strategic interest for three key reasons:

1. Mitigating Anti-Western and Anti-American Actions: The South African government consistently votes against the US at the UN, uses BRICS as a platform to attack the West, and engages in actions like litigation against Israel in the International Court of Justice.
2. Supporting Pro-Western and Pro-American Communities: There are communities within South Africa interested in trade and maintaining a friendly Western presence in Africa, which would be beneficial to the West and America.
3. Preventing Destabilisation: If South Africa collapses, its deep economic interconnections with other Sub-Saharan African countries (like Namibia and Mozambique) would lead to widespread destabilisation, increased migration into Europe and North America, and create a vacuum for anti-Western countries like China to gain access to mineral resources.

Self-Governance: A Range of Possibilities

When questioned by the Daily Caller about the specifics of self-governance, whether it entails Balkanisation or secession, Roets stated it is too early to definitively answer. He suggests it could take various forms, including:

• * A federation, similar to the US system or the Swiss canton model.
• * Territorial autonomy, where a community governs itself within a larger state, like the Tyrians in Italy or arrangements in Canada.
• * Cultural autonomy, allowing a scattered cultural community a degree of control over its affairs, such as education.
• *Secession or Balkanisation, while a possibility, is not necessarily the only outcome and depends on the South African government's willingness to cooperate.

In this sense, a parallel could be drawn to the breakup of Yugoslavia, noting its unsustainability stemmed from being a large, diverse territory whose peoples identified as distinct nations rather than as Yugoslavians—a comparison he finds "quite remarkable" in its applicability to South Africa.

Systemic Reform, Not a Reset to Apartheid

Lex Libertas advocates for systemic reform, not tearing the country apart or returning to the apartheid system. It is however profoundly ironic to witness the extent to which the current South African government shares similarities with apartheid in being race-based and governed by a highly centralised government. Despite the 1990s political system being celebrated for its good intentions and the constitution sounding ideal in theory, it has demonstrably failed in practice due to its highly centralised nature. The solution, according to Lex Libertas, is to decentralise the system, a challenge that previous dispensations (the National Party during apartheid and British during the era of the Unionisation of South Africa) also failed to address.

How to Support Lex Libertas

Lex Libertas is actively expanding its capacity, with plans to launch a "Lex Libertas Club" for volunteers in South Africa and abroad, schedule more trips to Europe and the U.S. in the promotion of the institution’s strategic objectives, and develop a declaration on the state of affairs in South Africa to garner widespread support.

People can become involved by becoming contributors to Lex Libertas (monthly or annual contributions) via https://www.lexlibertas.org.za/. Other forms of support include reaching out with opportunities, assisting with arranging interviews and meetings with influential figures or potential funders, and writing to their senators to encourage a stance on the situation in South Africa.

You can watch the full discussion with Daily Caller here.