South African Council Member Seeks US Refuge Under Trump Program

SJ Du Venage, a provincial council member for a right-wing party in South Africa, is seeking refuge in the United States under a program initiated by Donald Trump, driven by long-standing anxieties about the future of white South Africans.

A former youth leader in the far-right Conservative Party, which opposed the end of apartheid, Du Venage, 56, claims he grew up fearing the consequences for white South Africans if they lost control of the country. These fears, he states, have persisted despite his not having experienced tangible mistreatment.

Du Venage, a council member for the Freedom Front Plus party in the Western Cape province, is among a group of Afrikaners applying to a program Trump ordered to assist South Africa's white minority, who he claims face racial persecution. The South African government vehemently rejects this assertion as a fantasy.

All of Trump's individual claims of abuses, including allegations of state-sponsored violence and mass land seizures, have been disproven. Yet, Du Venage maintains he feels unsafe.

"When Trump's offer came, it was an opportunity from heaven," Du Venage said, speaking from a rented seaside house in Saint Helena Bay, north of Cape Town.

He underwent a seven-hour interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Pretoria in February to assess his eligibility. Having sold his home and completed medical and background checks required by U.S. authorities, he now awaits a decision on his acceptance.

The life coach and former personal trainer explained that his refugee claim is based on a fear of future persecution rather than past harm, both of which can qualify an applicant for the program, according to the U.S. embassy.

Du Venage cited a threatening message he received from a stranger after organizing a memorial for a white farmer whose 2020 killing became a racial flash point.

"I was asked in the questionnaire who do I think wants to kill me, and I don't really know," he said, adding that he believed his activism around farm murders had made him a target.

Murders of white farmers constitute a small fraction of South Africa's high homicide rate, which disproportionately affects Black people. However, these incidents have become a focal point for right-wing activists both domestically and internationally.

The United States has admitted more than 6,000 South Africans as refugees since last year, according to State Department data. The annual cap was recently raised to 17,500 to allow more white South Africans to enter, even as broader refugee programs have been frozen.

South Africa views the scheme as a privileged immigration pathway for Afrikaners – white South Africans mostly descended from Dutch settlers – and disputes claims of systemic persecution.

"There is a very well-organised lobby in South Africa that is emphasising white victimhood, and that is being hugely emboldened by Donald Trump," said Fanie Du Toit, executive director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, a South African think-tank.

Data does not support the claim that white South Africans as a group are oppressed or unsafe, added Du Toit, a member of "Afrikaners for South Africa," a group challenging this narrative.

A nationally representative survey conducted by the institute in 2022 found that about three in four white respondents never or rarely felt unsafe walking in their neighborhood, and a similar proportion described their living conditions as good. In stark contrast, only one third of Black respondents described their living conditions as good.

Even within Afrikaner political circles, support for emigration is limited. Freedom Front Plus leader Corne Mulder told Reuters that while he appreciated Trump's attention, he would prefer the U.S. to assist Afrikaners in South Africa, as only a small minority wishes to leave.

Du Venage, who is not an elected public representative but serves on the party's internal structures, anticipates a difficult transition to the U.S. and hopes to be placed somewhere with weather similar to Cape Town's.

"The feedback that we get is there is a small percentage that's very lucky, that land in a nice place with a lot of support, but a lot of our people are really struggling," he said.