LISTEN | Solidarity heads to Europe, Africa to pile pressure on government

Solidarity will embark on a month-long tour of Europe, asking world powers to put pressure on the South African government to rethink certain reform laws.

The organisation says the countries in the G20 they will visit will be asked to play a role in urging the South African government to reconsider what they believe are discriminatory laws. The group, alongside AfriForum, is in the US until later this week.

They are planning to visiting African countries in the next few months.

Speaking from Los Angeles, the head of international relations at the Solidarity Movement, Jaco Kleynhans, explained, “In Europe I engage with the EU on trade issues and there are several European countries that are concerned about South Africa's land expropriation act — the Dutch, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria and Italy. I will within the next month or so visit some of these countries to engage with their governments to say they must strengthen their relations with South Africa, but that they must also make use of the G20 summit to put pressure on the South African government to review the whole issue of the expropriation act.”

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EU representatives in South Africa recently expressed full support for the country's leadership amid the diplomatic fallout with the US. Last month, ambassadors from France, Germany and Italy, along with the EU's deputy ambassador, posted a video on X.

High-level meetings in the US

Solidarity Movement and AfriForum members had meetings with US President Donald Trump’s administration.

“We had about six meetings — one at the White House with people from Trump’s office, from the office of the vice-president, also the national security council. Then we had meetings at the Senate foreign relations committee with the senator, members of the House of Representatives, their foreign relations committee, also a high-level meeting at the department of state and then with policymakers”

He said they had asked them not to punish South Africa in terms of trade agreements between the two countries. He said they received a positive response from the Americans.

The organisations asked for financial support from the US government.

Investigation of high treason claims

Meanwhile, the Hawks are investigating Solidarity and AfriForum in connection with alleged high treason charges. The investigations stem from the organisations' meetings with officials in Washington.

Kleynhans strongly rejected the accusations, saying, “There is absolutely no grounds for that, it was political opportunism from certain political parties and individuals who made these cases. Our legal teams have looked at it already.”