SA-US meeting long overdue: Analyst

Political analyst Professor Sam Koma says the meeting between Presidents, Cyril Ramaphosa and Donald Trump will be key in quelling the tensions between the South Africa and the United States.

Ramaphosa is set to embark on a visit to Washington next week, in efforts to address the growing diplomatic challenges between the two countries.

SA and the US have been at loggerheads for months now, over a number of issues including the Bela Act and Expropriation Act.

The visit also comes amid growing international attention to unfounded claims of racial discrimination against white Afrikaners in South Africa.

At least 49 Afrikaners left the country to start new lives in the US, a few months after Trump signed an an executive order granting them refugee status.

Speaking to Ynews, Koma says he hopes both Presidents can find common ground.

Koma says the Afrikaners that left, cannot be called refugees.

 

In April, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, including a 30% tax on South Africa, before pausing them for 90 days.

Political commentator Goodenough Mashego says Trump knows that the whole narrative being spread about South Africa is false.

Meanwhile, President Ramaphosa maintains that those who chose to go settle in the US will be back soon.

Labelling them as cowards, the president says the group is not happy with efforts to address the inequities of the apartheid past.

On the other hand, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has reiterated that the Afrikaners who left for the US, cannot be classified as refugees.

Ntshavheni says America’s decision to offer refugee status to group of Afrikaners is misinformed.

Lobby group Afriforum says Ramaphosa needs to take responsibility for the role he played in the decision made by the 49 Afrikaners to move to the United States.

The group’s Kallie Kriel says government has alienated many Afrikaners by signing of the BELA Act and the Expropriation Act amongst other issues.

Kriel however says they remain committed to fighting injustices committed against Afrikaners and minorities in general.

In a turn of events, the Episcopal Church refused to help resettle the Afrikaners, choosing to instead halt its decades-long partnership with the federal government.

The church’s presiding Bishop, Sean Rowe, said the church has a longstanding commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and that it could not be itself if it took part in this step.

Rowe says the current program by the Trump administration doesn’t align with them anymore.

The narrative that only Afrikaners, and not “mostly Afrikaners,” are involved in promoting the “white genocide” claim is not fully supported by available evidence-most of the advocacy and international attention around this narrative has come from Afrikaner organizations and…

— Ask Perplexity (@AskPerplexity) May 15, 2025

What’ about us “Afrikaners” who’ve already landed in the US? After all these lies? https://t.co/zQA6TKw6YL

— piggybank (@piggybnk_) May 15, 2025

Believe me .you won’t get an answer because they don’t exist. Zero evidence to support these claims.But because they have powerful voices like Elon another white South African Afrikaners the claims are talk of the town putting our country at risk for no reason.

— Nondaba (@ShweleNgelosi) May 15, 2025

Refugee Afrikaners when when they realise that “NBA” stands for “National Basketball Association”

Not “NO BLACKS ALLOWED” 😭pic.twitter.com/UaQILS8g11

— ChrisExcel (@ChrisExcel102) May 15, 2025

USA citizen speaking about the Afrikaners who have arrived in USA pic.twitter.com/7MnWkfZ7c3

— African Hub (@AfricanHub_) May 14, 2025

“Rejected by my fellow Afrikaners” 😭

For the record, the “Afrikaner refugees” you are getting in the US do not represent all white Afrikaans speakers in South Africa. Even their own family members were surprised when they saw them on the news in the U.S. 😂 https://t.co/Ip93NJirYJ pic.twitter.com/xdAX2HdmF9

— Bianca van Wyk (@BiancavanWyk16) May 15, 2025