An online petition on the website change.org is calling for the European Union to give white South Africans, Namibians and Zimbabweans automatic European citizenship. “The white South African population currently faces ethnic cleansing and persecutions at the hands of the ANC government, the EFF, and various individual anti-white aggressors. Over 4000 white farmers have been brutally murdered, often including torture, rape and mutilation,” the petition reads.
“Many white South Africans today live in poverty and squalor as a consequence of the ANC government’s Black Economic Empowerment policy which shuts whites out of the labour pool.”
The petition has accumulated over 24,000 signatures.
Brazilian Rodrigo Herhaus de Campos, who is behind the campaign, says in the petition that he has been liaising with right wing group Front Nasionaal (National Front) in South Africa.
“Many of these white South Africans seeking citizenship are direct descendants of the very same European nations that reject them,” the petition reads.
The petition questions whether white South Africans should have “the right to return to any European nation of their choosing, or if they would specifically have the right to return to whatever nation the majority of their ancestry is from”. In most cases this would be either the UK or the Netherlands.
De Campos believes that it is “morally obligatory that Europe should allow all white South Africans the right to return” as he compares white South Africans to Jews being allowed the right to return to Israel.
Marischka Davies gave her reason for signing the petition: “Because I am a naturalised British citizen yet my mom is stuck on her own in South Africa. She should be growing old with her daughter and grand daughter. She has been attacked with an AK47 held to her head and is alone and traumatised. She deserves to be free from living in fear.”
Political analyst Shadrack Gutto dismissed the petition entirely. “You could petition to go to where you believe you originally came from but if you investigate further you find you came from somewhere else,” he told Times Live.
Gutto has said that he would like to open up a dialogue with those supporting the petition.
DA Abroad Leader, Ludre Stevens said that the DA does not support the petition in any shape or form.
“It is wrong to create an impression that there is a national racial agenda against whites in South Africa. The country has major challenges in terms of unemployment, crime and government inefficiency. These are challenges that affect us all, and that we must confront collectively as South Africans,” Stevens said.
“We believe in the potential of our country and its people, and that South Africa can once again take its place amongst the great nations of the world”.
