CAPE TOWN – President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are scheduled to meet at the White House next week following allegations by Trump — and denied by South Africa — that “genocide” is being committed against white farmers in the majority Black country.
The meeting, announced Wednesday by the South African government and set for May 21, also comes after the U.S. welcomed 59 white South Africans as refugees this Monday, the start of what the Trump administration said is a larger relocation plan for minority Afrikaner farmers who Trump has claimed 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,” his office said.
The White House had no immediate comment on the meeting, which would be Trump’s first with the leader of a nation in Africa since he returned to office in January.
Trump has criticized 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 over what the U.S. calls racist laws against whites and has accused the government of “fueling” violence against white farmers. The South African government says the relatively small number of killings of white farmers should be condemned but are part of the country’s problems with violent crime and are not racially motivated.
Trump said Monday — the same day that the first batch of Afrikaner refugees arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia — that there was “a genocide taking place” against white farmers that was being ignored by international media.
The U.S. criticism of what it calls South Africa’s racist, anti-white laws appears to refer to South Africa’s affirmative action laws that advance opportunities for Black people, and a new land expropriation law that gives the government power to take private land without compensation. Although the government says the land law is not a confiscation tool and refers to unused land that can be redistributed for the public good, some Afrikaner groups say it could allow their land to be seized and redistributed to some of the country’s Black majority.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has issued orders to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government. The administration has also threatened nongovernmental institutions like colleges and universities with the loss of financial aid unless they do the same.
Trump also required government contractors and other recipients of federal funds to certify, under threat of severe financial penalties, that they do not operate DEI programs that violate anti-discrimination laws.
Afrikaners are descendants of mainly Dutch, French and German colonial settlers who first came to South Africa in the 17th century. They were the leaders of the country’s previous apartheid system of racial segregation. There are around 2.7 million Afrikaners among South Africa’s population of 62 million, which is more than 80% Black. There are also nearly 2 million other whites of British and other descent.
Trump has also accused South Africa of taking “aggressive positions towards the U.S. and its allies” in its foreign policy and of being a supporter of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, and Iran.
Trump’s executive order cited South Africa’s decision to accuse U.S. ally Israel of genocide in Gaza in an ongoing case at the International Court of Justice as an example of its anti-American stance. Israel opened a military offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in an October 2023 intrusion into southern Israel.
The Israeli operation has killed over 52,928 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. Almost 3,000 have been killed since Israel broke a ceasefire on March 18, the ministry said.
Israel has resumed blocking food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for weeks, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians
Ramaphosa has spoken repeatedly of his desire to engage with Trump diplomatically and improve the relationship. He says Trump’s criticism is based on false information he’s being given about South Africa’s laws and the attacks on farmers.
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Superville reported from Washington.
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