President Cyril Ramaphosa has again dispelled allegations of white genocide in South Africa and rampant land expropriation made by his US counterpart, Donald Trump.
This emerged during a somewhat tense and heated meeting between the two leaders at the White House in Washington D.C., USA on Wednesday evening.
The meeting started cordially with pleasantries, as Ramaphosa thanked Trump for his donation of health material during the COVID-19 pandemic and peace efforts in SADC.
But events took a turn when Trump again made unsubstantiated allegations of white genocide in South Africa.
“We do have a lot of people concerned with regards to South Africa. We have many people that feel that they’re being prosecuted, and they’re coming to the United States. Generally, they’re white farmers fleeing South Africa. We would be talking about trade and other things,” said Trump.
But Ramaphosa dispelled the allegations and instead called on Trump to verify such claims with his friends in South Africa.
“It would take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends like those who are here. We would again talk about these claims, when we have talks around a quite table. I’m not going to be repeating what I’ve been saying. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you, these three gentlemen would not be here, including my minister of Agriculture, he would not be with me. So, it would take President Trump to listen to their stories, to their perspective,” remarked Ramaphosa.
Trump however stood by his words, and ambushed Ramaphosa when he played videos of what he said advocated for white genocide and expropriation of land in South Africa.
The videos featured EFF leader Julius Malema and MK leader Jacob Zuma. Ramaphosa however sought to clarify that the two do not represent government policies and are in fact leaders of minority parties.
“We have a multiparty constitution that allows people to express themselves. The leaders’ comments do not go along with government policy. People do get killed in South Africa, unfortunately they’re not only white people, but the majority are black people,” explained Ramaphosa.
The meeting comes a few weeks after 49 so-called Afrikaner “refugees” were flown from South Africa to Texas, at the behest of Trump, who again alleged that they were being persecuted, and their land confiscated.
According to the presidency, the meeting between the two leaders “will be the resetting of bilateral relations, reframing of economic cooperation and the pursuit of new trade and investment opportunities that align with South Africa’s development priorities.”
