Being White in South Africa

Well, it's profoundly unserious in terms of a human rights perspective.

It's profoundly unserious.

One needs to look at it from a human rights perspective in terms of what is a refugee status and the purpose of a refugee status.

And that's reserved for people with well-founded fear of persecution on recognized grounds.

And This has distorted the refugee language.

And in my view, it has damaged South Africa.

It has damaged our global standing.

And it also damages the global refugee project.

Because we have, it's wholly unsupported, of course, and that we know.

But it's, in my view, quite insulting to South Africa's real history.

And I really hope that one can still acknowledge white South Africans' fear.

We can still acknowledge crime.

We can still acknowledge discomfort.

And we can still acknowledge all of these things.

I always think that two things can be true at the same time, but this is not genocide.

Your discomfort is not genocide.

And we should absolutely, and we have been pushing back on this discourse and pushing back on this propaganda because victimhood without responsibility is a really dangerous line of thinking.

And one would hope that this is not... emboldening a section of our community that in fact need to take on greater responsibility.

But now it almost moves a certain portion of a community.

And I would say, Matthias, it's a really small portion of South Africans who've truly attached themselves to this propaganda.

But you would hope that they also don't buy into not taking on the responsibility that they still have towards South Africa.

We should not negate the important discussions that we have towards our community here and trying to almost sit on the sidelines now and go elsewhere whilst peering back in towards an environment where you now claim to be persecuted, but you were born from privilege in this environment.

So It's a current, if you walk around in our suburbs, in the shops and you engage with your friends, it's not a true reflection of what is happening in this country.

In fact, it is profoundly distorted.