South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Donald Trump will meet at the White House next week following Trump’s assertions, which South Africa has refuted, that “genocide” is being perpetrated against white farmers in the mainly Black country.
The meeting, announced by the South African government and scheduled for May 21, comes after the United States welcomed 59 white South Africans as refugees on Monday, the start of what the Trump administration claims is a larger relocation plan for minority Afrikaner farmers who Trump claims are being persecuted in their homeland because of their race.
South Africa denies the allegations and says whites in the majority Black country are not being singled out for persecution.
Ramaphosa’s office said, “He will be in the U.S. from Monday to Thursday of next week, and will meet with Trump on Wednesday at the White House.
Ramaphosa’s trip would aim to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries.”
Trump has criticised South Africa’s Black-led government on multiple fronts and issued an executive order Feb. 7 cutting all U.S. funding to the country as punishment for what he said were its anti-white policies at home and anti-American foreign policy.
The Republican president has singled out South Africa for what the US considers discriminatory legislation against whites, accusing the government of “fueling” violence against white farmers.
The South African government believes the relatively small number of white farmer killings should be condemned, but they are part of the country’s violent crime issue and are not racially motivated.
