Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

AfriForum calls on communities to work together to defend Section 235

Soundbite: Barend Uys (English)

Soundbite: Barend Uys (Afrikaans)

AfriForum calls on cultural and other communities and their leaders to collaborate in their common interest to ensure that Section 235 of the Constitution is retained. This appeal follows in response to a notification by Mzwanele Manyi, MK Party (MKP) MP, regarding his intended 24th Amendment Bill to the Constitution, which aims to repeal Section 235 of the Constitution and therefore strip all cultural and other communities of the right to self-determination. AfriForum submitted written representations on this on Sunday (26 April 2026).

According to Barend Uys, Head of Intercultural Relations and Cooperation at AfriForum, this proposed amendment is an attack on all cultural and other communities that strive for self-sufficiency, cultural autonomy and self-determination in accordance with international law. Uys further points out that the repeal of Section 235 would be in conflict with Articles 20 and 28 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), Articles 1, 5 and 27 of the United Nations’ (UN) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as well as Articles 3, 4 and 8 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

AfriForum is strongly opposed to the repeal of Section 235 and proposes that it be retained unchanged for the following reasons, among others:

Section 235 of the Constitution, which recognises “the notion of the right of self-determination of any community sharing a common cultural and language heritage, within a territorial entity in the Republic or in any other way” is in accordance with the ACHPR, UNDRIP and ICCPR.
By engaging in activities aimed at the destruction of the right to self-determination as recognised by Section 235, the MKP is acting in contravention of the ACHPR, UNDRIP and ICCPR.
Actions taken by communities on grassroots level and by royal leaders are within the ambit of Section 235, and the MKP is clearly out of touch with the priorities, aspirations, and realities of the cultural and other communities in the country.
The current and previous proposed constitutional amendments by the MKP are aimed at increased state authoritarianism and centralism to the detriment of the freedom and rights of communities and individuals.
This effort to repeal Section 235 of the Constitution is a dangerous departure from the negotiated settlement that enabled the establishment of the current South African dispensation.

According to Uys, the MKP reasoned in Parliament that Section 235 of the Constitution should be repealed because Afrikaner communities, such as Orania, are misappropriating it to justify their existence. “Based on the current and previous proposed constitutional amendments by the MKP, this reasoning simply serves as a smoke screen for actions aimed at the destruction of cultural communities, cultural rights and property rights, with the ultimate outcome of establishing a centralised, authoritarian state where politicians have all the authority and communities, traditional leaders and individuals have very limited freedom, rights and power. This authoritarian intent is clear when this proposed repeal of Section 235 of the Constitution is read together with the MKP’s 22nd Amendment Bill to the Constitution, which aims to abolish private land ownership in the country and make the state the custodian of all the land and natural resources by amending Section 25 of the Constitution.”

“The MKP claims that Section 235 is un-African and that the protection of individual rights is a sufficient guarantee for cultural and group rights. The ACHPR wisely safeguards both individual and group rights and regards self-determination as an inalienable right – it is clear that in reality it is the MKP that is un-African,” concludes Uys.

20260426-Parliament-Letter-Written representation on Constitution Twenty Fourth Amendment Bill 2026 Download