Pastor Shane Vaughn last week accused investor and philanthropist George Soros of creating division in South Africa during the country's Apartheid era.
During an April 1 YouTube live event that has since been removed from the platform but remains available for viewing on Rumble, the right-wing pastor presented his arguments against Soros under the headline, "The Sorcery of Soros." The video includes at the beginning a note about its deletion from YouTube and relocation to Rumble "in order to avoid censorship of FREE SPEECH."
Vaughn first described what he said South Africa was like during its time as a colony under the British monarchy's control.
"South Africa was a wonderful nation," Vaughn said. "But it was a closed society. It had a queen. It had an identity with the commonwealth, with Great Britain. It was identified there, it had traditions, it had its own history."
Soros' philanthropic efforts began in South Africa in 1979. According to the Open Society Foundations, the organization Soros founded to support his philanthropy around the world, his first philanthropic contributions came through funding scholarships for Black students at the University of Cape Town.
In his video, Vaughn cited a quote that is still present on the Open Society Foundations' website. Speaking specifically about South Africa, Soros described it as "a closed society with all the institutions of a first world country, but they were off limits to the majority of the population on racial grounds."
Soros added, "Where could I find a better opportunity for opening up a closed society?"
It was that second sentence that Vaughn quoted in his video.
"He brings his money down to South Africa, and he funds the university with scholarships for Black youth in apartheid South Africa. When he opens that school, he changes South Africa, and look what he did down there," Vaughn said.
Vaughn went on to say that Soros' actions led to division and violence in South Africa.
"He divided South Africa with this open society, removed the culture, removed the law, removed the foundation of the society, turned the races against one another, and then you take the nation and you create now an open society."
South Africa's Apartheid era began in the mid-1900s and lasted through the early 1990s. South Africa held its first fully democratic election in 1994, about 15 years after Soros began his philanthropic work there.
Though Soros began his work as a philanthropist in South Africa, his efforts have expanded throughout the world in the decades since to more than 120 countries, according to Open Society Foundations.
Newsweek reached out to Open Society Foundations for comment and will update this article with any response.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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