Keypoints:
- Ramaphosa rejects refugee claims by Afrikaners
- Trump cites ‘racial discrimination’ in US order
- SA president says group resists democratic change
SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday firmly denied that white Afrikaners seeking resettlement in the United States are refugees, saying they are not facing persecution but are resisting post-apartheid transformation.
Speaking at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, during a panel discussion alongside Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Mauritania’s Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, Ramaphosa pushed back against a February 7 executive order by US President Donald Trump, which allows for the resettlement of Afrikaners in the US, citing them as ‘victims of unjust racial discrimination.’
‘They do not fit the definition of a refugee,’ Ramaphosa said. ‘We are the only country in Africa where colonisers came and stayed. We have never driven them out of our country.’
White flight or political protest?
Afrikaners, descended from Dutch, German, and French settlers, were historically central to South Africa’s apartheid regime—a brutal system of racial segregation that formally ended in 1994. Some members of the community have recently expressed concerns over affirmative action, land reform, and South Africa’s broader equity policies.
Ramaphosa dismissed the notion that they are being targeted or oppressed. ‘They are not persecuted, hounded, or treated badly,’ he said. ‘They are leaving ostensibly because they do not want to embrace the changes taking place in our country in accordance with our constitution.’
He described those leaving as a ‘fringe grouping’ opposed to transformation and said their narrative was being misrepresented abroad.
Phone call to Trump over refugee claims
Ramaphosa said he had held a phone conversation with President Trump to challenge the claims outlined in the US executive order. ‘What you’ve been told by those who are opposed to transformation back home in South Africa is not true,’ he said. He also expressed a willingness to visit Washington for further dialogue on the issue.
The first group of Afrikaners covered by the resettlement order is expected to arrive in the US this week, according to reports.
Aid cut and geopolitical tensions
The same executive order also directed a reduction in US financial assistance to South Africa. Citing multiple grievances, the order referenced South Africa’s support for a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, its land expropriation policy, and growing diplomatic ties with Iran.
Observers have warned that the refugee designation could strain relations between Washington and Pretoria, especially as South Africa prepares for a critical general election later this year.
Local backlash to US decision
The resettlement move has provoked backlash within South Africa, where critics argue it paints a misleading picture of the country’s race relations and undermines post-apartheid reconciliation efforts.
Ramaphosa made it clear: ‘This is not a matter of persecution. This is a matter of some refusing to accept equality and inclusion.’
