US President Donald Trump and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa are set for a White House showdown next week following allegations that Cape Town is committing ‘genocide’ against white farmers.
The meeting announcement comes days after the US welcomed 59 white South Africans as refugees, the start of what the Trump administration said is a larger relocation plan for minority Afrikaner farmers.
South Africa denies the allegations and says whites in the majority black country are not being singled out for persecution.
Ramaphosa’s office said he will be in the US from Monday to Thursday of next week, and will meet with Trump on Wednesday at the White House.
He hopes to ‘reset the strategic relationship between the two countries’ after months of increasing tensions.
‘President Ramaphosa will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington DC to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of interest,’ South Africa’s presidency said.
The meeting will be Trump’s first with the leader of an African nation during his second stint in the White House. The announcement saw the South African rand currency strengthen against the dollar.
Trump has criticised South Africa’s black-led government on multiple fronts and issued an executive order on February 7 cutting all US funding to the country as punishment for what he said were its anti-white policies at home and anti-American foreign policy.
The Republican president has singled out South Africa over what the US calls racist laws against whites and has accused the government of ‘fuelling’ violence against white farmers.
Trump has criticised South Africa’s black-led government on multiple fronts and issued an executive order on February 7 cutting all US funding to the country
Ramaphosa’s office said he will be in the US from Monday to Thursday of next week, and will meet with Trump on Wednesday at the White House
The Republican president has singled out South Africa over what the US calls racist laws against whites and has accused the government of ‘fuelling’ violence against white farmers
In March, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled after accusing President Trump of using ‘white victimhood as a dog whistle’, leading to the US accusing Mr Rasool of ‘race-baiting’.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has cut all U.S. financial assistance to South Africa, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington’s ally, Israel.
The South African government says the relatively small number of killings of white farmers should be condemned but are part of the country’s problems with violent crime and are not racially motivated.
Mr Trump said on Monday – the same day that the first batch of Afrikaner refugees arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia – that there was ‘a genocide taking place’ against white farmers that was being ignored by international media.
Ramaphosa has recently stepped up efforts to address the land-based inequities, signing in a law in January to seize privately owned land without compensation.
He said those who wanted to leave the country were simply not happy with his efforts to fix the inequalities caused by South Africa’s apartheid past.
Ramaphosa added: ‘As South Africans, we are resilient. We don’t run away from our problems. We must stay here and solve our problems.
‘When you run away you are a coward, and that’s a real cowardly act.
‘I can bet you that they will be back soon because there is no country like South Africa.’
Mr Trump said on Monday – the same day that the first batch of Afrikaner refugees arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia – that there was ‘a genocide taking place’ against white farmers that was being ignored by international media
The meeting announcement comes days after the US welcomed 59 white South Africans as refugees
Newly arrived South Africans listen to US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar (R) deliver welcome statements after arriving in Washington DC on Monday
Black farmers still own a small fraction of the nation’s prime farmland more than 30 years after the end of apartheid in 1994 – the same year the ANC was elected.
In response to the legislation, the Trump administration, including South Africa-born Elon Musk, accused the ANC of ‘hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.’
But no land has yet been expropriated by the South African government.
The arrival of the first Afrikaners to the US follows an executive order in February.
The White House said: ‘It is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation, the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa.
‘The United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.’
Afrikaners are descendants of mainly Dutch, French and German colonial settlers who first came to South Africa in the 17th century.
They were the leaders of the country’s previous apartheid system of racial segregation. There are around 2.7 million Afrikaners among South Africa’s population of 62 million.
Close to 70,000 South Africans – mainly Afrikaners – have expressed interest in moving to the US, according to the South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA.
