'When you run away you are a coward': South Africa President Ramaphosa slams Afrikaners as Trump grants them US refuge - video

Soth African President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned a group of white Afrikaners who arrived in the United States as refugees, calling them “cowards” for fleeing the country. Speaking on Monday, Ramaphosa said those leaving were turning their backs on efforts to rebuild South Africa and avoid confronting its challenges.Speaking at an agricultural event in the Free State, Ramaphosa said those who left were abandoning their country rather than helping it move forward. “As South Africans, we are resilient. We don't run away from our problems. We must stay here and solve our problems,” he said. “That’s a real cowardly act.”

Ramaphosa added that he believed those who had left would soon regret it: “I can bet you that they will be back soon because there is no country like South Africa.”The Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority descended from Dutch, German and French settlers, have been at the centre of a growing row between Washington and Pretoria. The Trump administration claims the group faces racial discrimination in South Africa, citing unproven allegations of land seizures and violence against white farmers. Rights groups have sharply criticised the move, calling it a distortion of reality and an affront to millions of refugees fleeing war and famine across the globe who have been denied entry to the US under Trump’s policies.

President Trump, speaking Monday as the first batch of Afrikaner arrivals landed at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, repeated his claim that a “genocide” was taking place in South Africa. “It’s a genocide that’s taking place,” he said, offering no evidence but insisting he would raise the issue directly with Ramaphosa during their scheduled meeting at the White House on 21 May.Ramaphosa, speaking earlier in Abidjan, said he had already confronted Trump in a phone call over what he called misleading narratives.

“I told him that what you are being told by those people who are opposed to transformation back in South Africa is not true,” he said. He further told reporters the Afrikaners “do not fit the definition of a refugee.”The South African government has repeatedly denied that white citizens, including Afrikaners, are subject to state-backed persecution. Officials have accused the Trump administration of using racial tensions to justify what Pretoria views as an unjustified attack on its sovereignty and transformation agenda.More than 8,000 white South Africans are believed to have expressed interest in the US relocation scheme.