When the Bully Cries Bully: Lex Libertas starts petition against persecution in South Africa

Pretoria — The think tank and advocacy group, Lex Libertas has published a list of ten ways in which minority communities in South Africa experience persecution at the hands of the government, which serves as the foundation for an international anti-persecution campaign, including an online petition.

Dr Ernst Roets, Executive Director of Lex Libertas explained that the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa is right to take a stance against bullying, but if he truly means it, he should stop the internal abuses that are happening under his leadership in South Africa. This was in response to the President’s claims in reference to the G20 and international criticism, that the United States government was engaged in bullying tactics with regard to South Africa. Ramaphosa’s accusations came in direct response to legitimate concerns raised by the United States regarding political intimidation and human-rights abuses.

Dr Roets explained that the South African government, led by Ramaphosa as president and the African National Congress (ANC) as de facto ruling party, has built up an extensive record of bullying tactics against ethnic minorities over the last few decades, which seems to have been intensified in recent years. These findings are drawn from a multi-year review of public statements, legislative frameworks, court rulings, and documented incidents. He refers in particular to the South African government’s treatment of racial and ethnic minorities.

“Ramaphosa’s claim of victimhood ignores a far more pressing reality. This reality is that the political elite in South Africa, which includes the ANC, the various spheres of government and institutions aligned with it, routinely bullies the very communities over whom it governs.”

Dr Roets explained that South Africa is not a single, homogenous nation, but a multinational society made up of diverse historic communities. Many of these communities – including Afrikaners and other minority groups – are increasingly targeted through policy, violent rhetoric, scapegoating, blame-shifting and institutional action.

Lex Libertas is already working on an extensive record of the bullying tactics employed by the ANC and the South African government. These include the following:

1. Violent and genocidal rhetoric

Some of the most influential politicians in the country have engaged in genocidal rhetoric against ethnic minorities. This includes both chants and speeches that romanticise the violent extermination of minorities. Just days after the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema stated during a speech that he intends to “slit the throat of whiteness”, he was publicly invited by Ramaphosa to rejoin the ANC. Ramaphosa declared that it was clear to him that Malema was still a member of the ANC, “deep down in his heart.”

2. Vilification, scapegoating and blame-shifting

The political elites in South Africa have been engaging in vilification, scapegoating and blame-shifting tactics against ethnic minorities for decades. This includes the claim by Ramaphosa himself that: “If you don't vote (for the ANC), the boers will come back to control us.” This is not an isolated incident, as there are a plethora of such examples. This includes claims by members of the South African government that Afrikaans is an ugly language and that the problem with Afrikaner men is their “Calvinist religion” which allegedly teaches that they own women and that they can kill them if they wish. Examples of scapegoating include, most remarkably, the claim by Ramaphosa’s predecessor, President Jacob Zuma, that everything that is wrong with South Africa should be blamed on white people.

3. A vast network of exclusionary race laws

South Africa currently has more than 140 race-based laws in force. These laws are proclaimed to seek to promote equality and “black empowerment”, even though these laws have failed remarkably in achieving this. In practice, these laws serve to exclude the white minority in particular from opportunities in the labour market. This is the most extensive system of racial legislation anywhere in the world.

4. The confiscation of legally owned private property belonging to minorities

The political elite in South Africa has been pursuing a programme to enable the state to confiscate private property without compensation. This is presented as an attempt to address historic injustices, even though an extensive land claims programme has already been implemented in South Africa. Several governmental leaders have made it clear that their intentions are race-based, that only property belonging to the white minority would be targeted and that there would be a “violent takeover” if white property owners don’t comply. Ramaphosa went as far as stating that confiscating private property that belongs to the white minority would create the “Garden of Eden” and the “ultimate paradise” in South Africa. Even though the government and public commentators routinely deny that confiscation has occurred, there are documented cases where private property has effectively been seized without meaningful compensation.

5. Unfettered land grabs and land invasions

Over the last few decades, South Africa has witnessed a scourge of illegal land grabs. This typically includes organised groups who exploit loopholes in the justice system occupying private property in large numbers. These invasions are enabled by court rulings that prioritise procedural technicalities or overly broad human-rights interpretations over property protection, often resulting in legal landowners losing their property.

6. An ongoing scourge of farm murders

South Africa has witnessed an ongoing scourge of farm murders since 1990. Thousands of people have been murdered during farm attacks, which also tend to be exceptionally violent. There are many examples of such attacks happening with clear racist and political motives, and even indications that the attacks tend to increase in frequency after high profile cases of incitement of violence by politicians. Several members of the political elite in South Africa have blamed the victims for these attacks, saying that they would not be tortured and murdered if they behaved better.

7. Suffocation by regulation

Even though virtually every government department has failed to fulfil its basic functions, leaving local communities and the private sector to do the work that was supposed to be done with their tax money, it is made extremely difficult for such communities to do these things themselves as a result of overregulation. Examples include overregulation with regard to private security and power generation, making it both difficult and expensive for people to defend themselves against crime and to generate electricity, even though the government isn’t able to fulfil these functions.

8. Denial of rights

Leaders of the South African government have made it clear that their interpretation of democracy is one in which people do not have equal rights. This was made clear, for example, when the former president, Jacob Zuma publicly declared that democracy requires that the (white) minority must have fewer rights than the (black) majority. South African courts have entertained this idea, ruling that the Afrikaner community should have fewer rights for historical reasons, that the promotion of Afrikaans language education is an expression of racism and that chanting for the violent extermination of minority communities is permissible speech. Furthermore, the South African Human Rights Commission has declared that the race of the accused ought to be a determining factor in the question of whether someone has committed hate speech.

9. Public denial by the President

Despite these undeniable realities, President Ramaphosa has publicly denied that these terrible things are happening in South Africa when he visited New York in August 2018. The relationship between the ANC and the EFF (including the fact that Ramaphosa wants the EFF to join the ANC) was denied during the meeting with President Trump in the White House, earlier this year.

10. International positioning and diplomatic contradictions

While the South African government portrays itself as a victim of foreign pressure, it continues to align itself with some of the world’s most repressive regimes, including those responsible for widespread censorship, political persecution, and the suppression of minority rights. This contradiction is stark: a government that dismisses legitimate human-rights concerns from democratic partners routinely shields extremist rhetoric at home and praises destructive policies abroad. A recent example is Ramaphosa’s veneration of Zimbabwe’s land-reform programme under Robert Mugabe during the early 2000s. South Africa cannot credibly accuse others of “bullying” while its own diplomatic posture consistently favours authoritarian states.

“For these reasons, the American government and the international community have a moral duty to take a stance against the terrible things that are happening in South Africa,” Dr Roets explained.

Lex Libertas emphasises that these problems are not temporary misunderstandings. They are structural, rooted in a political order that centralises power, suppresses community autonomy, and enables ideological abuse.

“South Africa does not need grandstanding about ‘bullying’ on the world stage. It needs meaningful political reform: decentralisation, constitutional restraint, and the recognition of the country’s distinct communities and their rights to self-governance. Only then will South Africa be able to speak credibly about justice—internationally or at home,” he concluded.

It is for this reason that Lex Libertas has launched a Stop the Persecution campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness about the crisis in South Africa in order to increase local and international pressure for a more sustainable political dispensation, based on the promotion of self-governance for the various peoples of South Africa.

The campaign can be supported at the following link:

https://www.lexlibertas.org.za/campaigns/stoppersecution

Lex Libertas is a think tank and advocacy group working towards a viable political dispensation in South Africa, based on the principles of freedom, decentralisation, and self-governance.