By Thapelo Molefe
President Cyril Ramaphosa and US President Donald Trump are expected to meet next week, amid growing tensions over Trump’s claims of violence against white farmers in the country and his administration welcoming Afrikaners as refugees.
“Because they’re being killed, and we don’t want to see people be killed,” Trump said during a press conference when asked why his administration is offering expedited refugee status to Afrikaners while continuing to restrict admissions from war-torn countries like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“It’s a terrible thing that’s taking place. And farmers are being killed. They happen to be white. But whether they’re white or black makes no difference to me… their land is being confiscated in South Africa,” Trump said, labeling the situation a “genocide”.
He also accused the media of ignoring the plight of white South African farmers, adding, “If it were the other way around, they’d talk about it. That would be the only story they’d talk about.”
Ramaphosa has pushed back strongly against this narrative, saying he had defended South Africa’s anti-apartheid policies during a call with Trump.
“He asked, he said, what’s happening down there? And I said, president, what you’ve been told by those people who are opposed to transformation back home in South Africa is not true,” Ramaphosa said.
“We were well taught by Nelson Mandela and other iconic leaders… on how to continue to build a united nation out of the diverse groupings that we have in South Africa.”
Ramaphosa described the refugee claims as being driven by a “fringe grouping that does not have a lot of support, that is anti-transformation and anti-change”, saying that some of these elements would prefer a return to apartheid-era policies.
“I would never do that. I learned at the feet of Nelson Mandela,” he added. “I said, I’d like to come and meet him so that we can discuss this matter further.”
In February, Trump signed an executive order halting all US aid to South Africa, citing alleged human rights violations against the white Afrikaner minority. The order accused South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination through affirmative action policies and the new Expropriation Act, which Trump claimed targeted Afrikaners’ land without compensation.
The order also directed the development of a plan to resettle white Afrikaners as refugees in the United States, marking a significant departure from Trump’s previous suspension of the broader refugee programme.
The administration justified this move by alleging that Afrikaners face “race-based persecution”, a claim that has been widely criticized and lacks substantiated evidence.
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, addressed the issue during a briefing on Monday.
He criticised the US order granting refugee status to Afrikaners, stating that it “lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid”.
He emphasised that the individuals departing for the US did not legally qualify as refugees, arguing, “They can’t provide any proof of any persecution, because there is none.”
Lamola further highlighted the irony of the US offering refugee status to a group that remained among the most economically privileged in South Africa, while simultaneously deporting vulnerable individuals from other parts of the world.
He expressed concern over what he described as a “campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation”, noting that such narratives seemed to have found favor among decision-makers in the United States.
Additionally, Lamola reiterated that even Afrikaner groups have denied the existence of targeted persecution.
He cited data from the Transvaal Agricultural Union indicating that farm murders have declined in recent years, affecting both Black and white individuals.
It looks likely that Ramaphosa’s special envoy to the US, Jonas Mcebisi, will be part of the meeting with Trump.
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