PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA — President Cyril Ramaphosa has criticized a group of 59 white South Africans who have relocated to the United States, labeling them “cowards” and predicting their eventual return.
The group of Afrikaners arrived in the U.S. on Monday, having been granted refugee status by President Donald Trump, who cited racial discrimination as the reason.
However, Ramaphosa stated that those who chose to leave were dissatisfied with efforts to address the historical inequities of the apartheid era, describing their relocation as a “sad moment for them.”
“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,” he added.
Trump and his close associate, South Africa-born Elon Musk, have previously alleged a “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa, a claim that has been widely refuted.
The U.S. has also accused the South African government of expropriating land from white farmers without providing compensation.
More than three decades after the end of white minority rule in South Africa, black farmers still own only a small portion of the country’s prime farmland, with the majority remaining in white hands, fueling discontent over the slow pace of change.
In January, President Ramaphosa signed a controversial law allowing the government to seize privately owned land without compensation under certain circumstances deemed “equitable and in the public interest.” However, the government maintains that no land has been seized under this legislation.
Trump offered to resettle the white Afrikaners, descendants of predominantly Dutch settlers, asserting that they were fleeing a “terrible situation” in South Africa.
Speaking at an agricultural exhibition in the Free State province on Monday, Ramaphosa suggested that the Afrikaners were relocating to the U.S. because they were not “favourably disposed” to initiatives aimed at resolving the country’s challenges.
“If you look at all national groups in our country, black and white, they’ve stayed in this country because it’s our country and we must not run away from our problems. We must stay here and solve our problems,” Ramaphosa stated.
“I can bet you that they will be back soon because there is no country like South Africa,” he added.
His “coward” remark drew criticism from some social media users, who condemned it as an insult to aggrieved white South Africans.
The group of Afrikaners were welcomed by U.S. officials who claimed they had been “living under a shadow of violence and terror” in South Africa.
“Welcome to the land of the free,” Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau said as he greeted the South Africans who arrived at Dulles airport near Washington D.C. on Monday.
Some of the arrivals held young children and waved small American flags in the arrival area, which was decorated with red, white, and blue balloons.
Earlier on Monday, President Ramaphosa informed an Africa CEO forum in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, that he had recently told Trump during a phone call that the U.S. assessment of the situation was “not true.”
“We’re the only country on the continent where the colonisers came to stay and we have never driven them out of our country,” he added, dismissing claims of Afrikaner persecution. Â
Ramaphosa stated that the dozens of white South Africans who arrived in the U.S. on Monday “don’t fit the bill” for refugees.
The South African leader also indicated that he is scheduled to meet with Trump soon to discuss the issue.
Trump has threatened to boycott the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa unless the “situation is taken care of.”
