http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20090901040349609C242817

By Craig Mckune

A South African man has been granted refugee status by Canada's immigration and refugee board, which has found "clear and convincing proof" he was persecuted for being white.

Brandon Huntley, 31, "would stand out like a 'sore thumb' due to his colour in any part of the country", the board's panel chair, William Davis, said in his decision.

Huntley, who grew up in Mowbray, said he had been attacked seven times and stabbed four times "by African South Africans" between 1991 and 2003.

Davis found he "was a victim because of his race rather than a victim of criminality".

He said the evidence offered by Huntley, immigration lawyer Russell Kaplan and witness Lara Kaplan, who emigrated to Canada last year, "shows a picture of indifference and inability or unwillingness of the government and security forces to protect white South Africans from persecution by African South Africans".
Canadian High Commission spokeswoman Valery Yiptong said on Monday night that the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) functioned much like the South African Home Affairs' sub-directorate for refugee affairs.

Davis is a member of the board's refugee protection division.

Huntley first travelled to Canada on a six-month work permit in 2004 and worked as a carnival attendant. He went back to Canada in 2005 and, after his work permit expired, he stayed on illegally until making his refugee claim in April last year.

Huntley told the tribunal he had been called "a white dog" and "a settler" when attacked.

He had not reported any of the attacks to the police because "the majority of them are South Africans and he did not trust them".

Huntley also said he had been able to find employment only because of family connections. He was otherwise prohibited from finding work by the country's affirmative action policies.

"Upon his return to South Africa (at the end of 2004), he knew that he could not survive there any more. He was constantly afraid and he knew there was no future from a security (and financial) point of view because of his skin colour", the decision said, noting Huntley's allegations.

Testifying before the tribunal, Russell Kaplan's sister, Lara Kaplan, told how their brother Robert had been tortured and shot three times by a group of black South Africans who had broken into his home.

Davis said he found Huntley a credible witness as his story was consistent and "plausible". Lara Kaplan's testimony enhanced and supported his claims that "persecution of white South Africans by African South Africans (is) a common event today in South Africa".

Russell Kaplan, who moved from South Africa to Canada in 1989, called Davis's finding a "landmark case".

But SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) chief executive Tseliso Thipanyane said unless the decision was endorsed by Canada's supreme court, it would not be considered a reflection of that country's position.

"I find the finding rather odd, actually," he said last night. "The commission will not dispute the fact that there are white people who are attacked by black people on the basis of racism, but it also happens the other way round.

"And the majority of victims of crime in the country are not white people."

On the question of affirmative action, Thipanyane referred to a recent SAHRC survey that found that 61 percent of the top positions in companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange were occupied by white males.

Kaplan said he had considered the prospect of bringing such an application before the IRB before meeting Huntley, but this had not seemed possible.

"This was the case that I had been waiting for," he said.

I would hope all white countries of the former British empire would be willing to reabsorb their kin back into their society cos land reform is a must in Africa.

@RSA,
What does this topic have to do with Nigerian politics? Or didn't you see the name of the board you opened before you started the topic?
Please have it removed from here fast.
Wetin concern us concern your South Africans? Don't we have enough problems of our own to worry about?

Good riddance to bad rubbish

fellis:

@RSA,
What does this topic have to do with Nigerian politics? Or didn't you see the name of the board you opened before you started the topic?
Please have it removed from here fast.
Wetin concern us concern your South Africans? Don't we have enough problems of our own to worry about?

Put your spear down now'o Omo,I'm sure the moderator will send it to the right section.I apologise and beside I thought we're all Africans,or am I a foreigner here?

Na you know.
Nairaland still has a seperate section for foreign affairs even if we are all Africans.

.

.

Brandon Huntley, 31, "would stand out like a 'sore thumb' due to his colour in any part of the country", the board's panel chair, William Davis, said in his decision.

even in those whites only enclaves around South Africa?

anyway, wouldnt he qualify as an overseas British subject due to his ancestry or have they discontinued that program.

Or maybe he doesnt want to go to the UK.

He had not reported any of the attacks to the police because "the majority of them are South Africans and he did not trust them".