Afrikaner Groups Investigate Self-Determination

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Legalbrief | your legal news hub Friday 24 September 2021 Afrikaner groups investigate self-determination Solidarity and its sister organisations are to investigate the possibility of independence and self-determination for Afrikaners in terms of section 235 of the Constitution, says a Beeld report. It notes more than 1 500 delegates attended a 'crisis summit' at the Voortrekker Monument last week to discuss what they perceive as the failing state of the country. A motion was accepted to investigate 'geographically-bound independence'. Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, noted the Constitution makes provision for self-determination, but said this had not been explored with vigour in the past. He claims the constitutional dispensation of 1994 was 'failing' and that alternatives should be explored. Buys added that the concept of self-determination was a 'controversial concept with certain political connotations which should be considered with circumspection'. AfriForum's Kallie Kriel supported the notion. A task team will report back at a follow-up summit on 10 October. The task team will be assisted by an advisory board under the leadership of law Professor Koos Malan, of the University of Pretoria, and the organisation Lawyers for Afrikaans. The plan was quickly given the thumbs down. It 'is a revival of the volkstaat mentality which has no place in a democratic SA,' was how African National Congress spokesperson Keith Khoza described it. According to a Beeld report, Khoza saw it as a concept for those who wished to return to apartheid. Theuns Eloff, chairperson of the FW de Klerk Foundation, said it was necessary to talk about issues affecting minority groups, but that separate homelands based on race was impracticable. Constitutional law expert Marinus Wiechers said any plan for territorial self-determination must be made in line with the Constitution and must be approved by two-thirds of MPs. If, however, there was any racial agenda behind such a plan it would be doomed. Renier Schoeman, a commissioner of the Commission for the Promotion of Cultural, Religious and Language Communities, said the plans were 'disappointing' and a backward move that places the trade union in a political landscape. 'It should rather try to carve out a role for itself in the broader constitutional South African society.'.

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