By Francis Daniels
Brandon Carl Huntley became a notorious person on August 27, 2009.
A white South African garden sprinkler salesman of modest educational attainment and a resident of a lower middle class Cape Town suburb, the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board on that date determined to grant him the status of a refugee.
It concluded that he was likely to be persecuted in South Africa simply because of the color of his white skin, the unwillingness or inability of the South African state to protect its citizens against violence, and white South Africans suffering from the national policy of black economic empowerment or affirma-tive action.
The African National Congress and the South African government went into damage control, denouncing the decision as “racist”.
Many white South Africans have been just as angry and dismissive of Mr. Huntley’s claims. But, several other white South Africans have supported the kernel of his claims that Whites are subject to discrimi-nation and poor treatment in South Africa. This decision was reported by even the Taipei Times of Taiwan and in New Zealand.
Mr. Huntley alleged that he had been attacked seven times, including three stab-bings, by black South Africans because of his white skin color. Some of his assailants called him a “white dog” and a “settler”.
The Canadian Immigration tribunal took note of estimates that 19,000 indi-viduals (or more than 50 per day) were murdered in 2006 in South Africa.
It also accepted the argument that the rise of white poverty, described as a “new phe-nomenon”, was an outcome of South Africa’s affirmative action and black economic empowerment program designed to redress the iniquities of apartheid.
I take Mr. Huntley at his word that he was attacked several times by black people who hurled racial epithets at him. Nevertheless, those attacks do not entitle him to refugee status.
If they did, all crime victims singled out for racial, religious, national or ethnic abuse in South Africa who also suffered under apart-heid should also qualify as refugees in Canada. I doubt Canada would be willing to accept those numerous souls on its shores as refugees
. Thus, to grant Mr. Huntley that sta-tus is conferring a privilege on him because of his white South African skin that is denied to the numerous other Africans deluged by the same crime wave in South Africa. It speaks volumes for the myths about South Africa that a sympathetic Canadian who has not even visited South Africa took seriously the claim of “white persecution.”
In truth, however, White South Africans remain at the top of the heap even under a black gov-ernment. Stroll through the wealthy suburbs of Sandhurst in Johannesburg and Constantia in Cape Town and you will see trim white peo-ple jogging or cycling; not blacks or coloreds.
Pick up the financial newspapers and you will see that at least 60% of the chief executives of South Africa are white.
The unemployment rate for White South Africans in 2007 was 4.3%, a slight improvement over the 4.6% rate of 1997. By contrast, the black unemployment rate increased from 29.3% in 1997 to 29.8% in 2007. Persecuted whites enjoy some of the lowest unemployment rates in the world and the best living standards.
The sad truth is that South Africa has been submerged in violent crime for decades.As far back as 1954, the American jour-nalist, John Gunther, observed in his book “Inside Africa” that crime was rampant in South Africa.
He wrote: “Crime is aston-ishingly prevalent in South Africa, and the country has more people in jail in propor-tion to population than any in the free world .... In the Witwatersrand area alone there were 186 murders in 1945, 231 in 1948, and 472 in 1951....”
The 1951 murders equated to a murder rate of 28.3 murders per 100,000. That rate is more than twice the 2005 rate of 12.6 per 100,000 for Los Angeles. But, it pales besides the latest Western Cape murder rate of 58.6 murders per 100,000.
Despite the unacceptably high crime rate endured by white South Africans, crime is highest among black and so-called colored South Africans. The Canadians are right that the South African government violates the human rights of its citizens every day by failing to reduce the scourge of crime.
They should open their borders to all South African victims of crime, regardless of race. In the meantime, no white should receive special privileges.Mr. Huntley should be returned to South Africa.
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