The United States State Department is reportedly preparing to give the advocacy group AfriForum a grant of about $986,500, roughly R18 million as local reports convert it, to document violence affecting Afrikaner and other South African minority communities. AfriForum says the allocation has not been finalised.
What is reported
According to the report, the money comes from the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and is meant to "create a comprehensive record of violence affecting Afrikaner and other South African minority populations." Multiple unnamed sources familiar with the funding said the grant is now being awarded to AfriForum.
The report says the funding was first intended for Lex Libertas, a group founded by Ernst Roets, a former AfriForum executive. Officials then widened the field to what the report calls "a small pool of handpicked organizations." The State Department later published an open call for applicants. The report ties that change to its own earlier reporting, while one local account ties it to criticism from US lawmakers. The accounts differ.
Reaction
AfriForum did not answer detailed questions. It said "our understanding is that the allocation has not yet been finalised."
A senior State Department official, who was not named, said by email that "human rights protections do not depend on a person's income or ethnicity."
US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the administration "proceeded with funding fringe right-wing causes internationally" and called the lack of transparency "unacceptable." A Democratic Senate aide said the committee received no briefing on the recipients, which the aide called highly unusual.
David Jandura, a former State Department Africa portfolio manager, said it was "offensive to provide funding solely to this one group." Carolyn Holmes, a University of Tennessee academic, said "these data already exist," a reference to existing crime statistics.
What we do not yet know
We have not seen the grant notice or an award from the State Department, and the final amount and recipient are not confirmed. We found no statement on the grant from the South African Presidency or the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. Some local accounts say the government has rejected claims of a state-backed campaign against white farmers, but those accounts do not attribute the statement. AfriForum has previously met US officials in Washington, and President Cyril Ramaphosa has publicly criticised that lobbying.
