Cape Town — The South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA (SACCUSA) has said that nearly 70 000 Afrikaner nationals expressed interest in President Donald Trump’s refugee offer.
Trump offered asylum in the US for all Afrikaners and farmers living in South Africa, calling the country a “very bad place”.
This came after the Afrikaans civil society group, AfriForum, organised a meeting with members of Trump’s administration to sanction the ANC government.
SACCUSA President Neil Diamond said the refugee applications were not their responsibility but instead focuses on businesses looking for opportunities in the US, Newzroom Afrika reported.
“It was very important for the South African Chamber of Commerce in the US to travel to South Africa so that we could share the details of those folks that have registered on our website to receive more information and to express their interest in the refugee programme as contained in President Trump’s executive order of February 7, 2025,” he said.
Diamond said applications came pouring in almost instantly following Trump’s announcement.
“Immediately following the executive order, it was about 5pm US time, when we got the information. We related that information to some of the folks we knew in South Africa, and it just spread like a wildfire. By the time I woke up on Saturday morning, on February 8, I had 7 500 emails in my mailbox, over 2 500 texts, WhatsApp and Facebook messages – basically our mail server crashed. We couldn’t deal with the volume of inquiries that we received, which was totally unexpected.”
Diamond suspected that the executive order may have caught some people off-guard and said there were no channels through which to apply, except the contact details of SACCUSA.
As nearly 70 000 Afrikaners express interest in US President Donald Trump’s refugee offer, SA Chamber of Commerce in the US president Neil Diamond clarifies that refugee applications aren’t their responsibility. He stresses the chamber focuses on business while supporting those… pic.twitter.com/eoGcuz7V9C
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) March 18, 2025
He said SACCUSA had to navigate big challenges and create a space for people to register and obtain information on the matter.
“I travelled to Washington DC the following, reached out to the State Department as well as the US Embassy in South Africa to indicate that we would like them to make a channel available for South Africans that would like to get more information and register for refugee status,” he said.
He said that it was not the responsibility of SACCUSA to do so as it was more business and commerce-focused. He said they tried to help and not abandon people while they needed help.
Diamond said SACCUSA walked a narrow line when it came to assisting Afrikaners as it aimed to keep good relations between South Africa and USA is concerned.
“We didn’t want to be in that space, we created that space so that people could get out of our mailbox and our servers,” he said.
‘We never in our wildest dreams expected that this amount of people would express interest. We don’t encourage anybody leaving, we also don’t deny anybody the opportunity to join our South African diaspora in the United States and seek different or other opportunities that they may or may not have found within South Africa,” he said.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
