By Simon Nare
The Presidency has confirmed that a second group of white Afrikaners left the country for the United States as part of the US President Donald Trump’s programme to resettle white South Africans in that country under an executive order.
Whie addressing reporters President Cyril Ramaphosa’s programme, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya was unkeen to give details.
“We are aware that there was a commercial flight that left with some people, but with much smaller number than the previous group. That information we have obviously as government we would have that information,” he said on Thursday.
“But we are still a little bit scornful of that programme because it is not part of any reality and we hope that some logic would apply around it. If there is a recruitment of people of a particular race with certain skills then it must be called as that, but it mustn’t be disguised as other things.”
Magwenya disputed any refugee status of any South African whether within or any other country. He revealed that Ramaphosa would be attending the G7 meeting in Canada between June 14 to 17 2025 where Trump would also be in attendance.
He said teams from both sides were hard at work trying to arrange a meeting between Ramaphosa and Trump on the sidelines of the gathering, but pointed out that given what he termed a successful meeting between the two leaders at the White House recently, there would be no added pressure to secure such a meeting.
Magwenya told reporters that government was not involved in the resettlement, which was continuing despite widespread denouncement of white genocide and a meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa.
He said the Oval Office had opened doors for further talks between the two countries to further explore trade relations.
Magwenya said despite the ambush witnessed on television when Trump questioned Ramaphosa about the so-called white genocide, what happened behind closed doors was much more encouraging, and Ramaphosa was enthused and satisfied with the opportunity he had with Trump.
“The president feels that we are at a much better position post that visit than we were prior to the visit and certainly it has opened the door for more engagements between our respective trade teams,” he said.
Magwenya said the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition had put together a proposal that has been tabled with their US counterparts and were waiting for a response to the package.
He added that meetings were planned later in the month to further deliberate on the proposals, where there would be formal and substantive engagements on what he described as a new trade relationship framework with the US. They were mindful of the 90-day pause for tariff increases.
“Part of the issues that will be discussed will be issues of tariffs alongside what we see as an excellent opportunity to expand the basket of trading goods between ourselves and the US,” he said.
A group of 49 Afrikaners left the country to resettle in the US last month.
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