Why South Africa called Trump’s Afrikaner refugee policy ‘racist’ and ‘uninformed’
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has criticised US President Donald Trump’s policy allowing white Afrikaners to apply for refugee status in the United States, calling it “racist” and saying Trump is “truly uninformed” about South Africa.
Ramaphosa’s remarks follow a growing diplomatic rift in which Trump has repeatedly promoted the debunked claim that white South Africans face a “genocide” and that the government is seizing land from white farmers. Ramaphosa rejected that narrative again, saying, “There’s no white genocide, and there is no grabbing of land.”
At the centre of Ramaphosa’s criticism is the selective nature of the US refugee offer. The Trump administration has cut back broader refugee admissions while creating an exception for Afrikaners, a group historically associated with South Africa’s former apartheid-era ruling minority and still, on average, far wealthier than Black South Africans. Ramaphosa said the policy is a racialised view of South Africa and urged Trump to “see the truth of the situation.”
Ramaphosa also described a tense Oval Office meeting in 2025, saying Trump dimmed the lights and played a video he claimed proved “white genocide”, an encounter Ramaphosa called a “spectacle” and an “ambush.”
The White House has defended Trump’s stance as humanitarian, saying he is highlighting “harrowing stories of Afrikaners” and will “continue to speak the truth about these injustices.”
Trump has publicly targeted South Africa since returning to office in 2025, including through an executive action accusing Pretoria of mistreating Afrikaners and citing the country’s expropriation law. Trump also boycotted the G20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg and later said South Africa would be barred from the US-hosted G20 gathering in Miami.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
