<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/05/south-africa-president-cyril-ramaphosa-calls-donald-trump-policy-white-afrikaners-racist>
"South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has called Donald Trump’s policy of
allowing white Afrikaners to apply for refugee status in the US “racist”,
saying the US president was “truly uninformed” in a rare instance of direct
criticism.
Ramaphosa told the
New York Times that last year’s Oval Office meeting with
the US leader, when Trump turned down the lights and played a video that he
falsely claimed showed there was a “white genocide” in South Africa, was a
“spectacle” and an “ambush”.
“I just thought that he is so uninformed, truly uninformed,” Ramaphosa said. “I
realised that he is looking at South Africa through a completely, sort of,
foggy lens, without realising the real, real harm that apartheid did. In my
view, he was just dismissive.”
Trump has targeted South Africa since starting his second term in office in
January 2025. He has spread false allegations that the country’s white minority
are undergoing a “genocide” and that their land is being seized by the
government.
In May, the US extended refugee status to Afrikaners – who once led the
repressive minority apartheid government and who remain on average many times
wealthier than Black South Africans – while slashing its refugee programme for
people fleeing war and persecution.
Trump refused to attend the G20 leaders meetings in Johannesburg in November
and has banned South Africa from attending the US-hosted gathering in Miami
later this year.
“I do think the Afrikaner policy is racist,” Ramaphosa said. “It is that racist
sort of demeanour that we want to be able to whittle down so that he can see
the truth of the situation.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
