JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa strongly criticized a recent visit by a lobby group representing the white minority Afrikaner community to the White House, amidst escalating tensions with the Trump administration. The lobby group, AfriForum, and its affiliates disclosed that a small delegation of its leaders had met with White House officials following President Donald Trump’s executive order halting aid to South Africa over alleged human rights violations against the white minority group.
Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that the South African government is unlawfully seizing land from white farmers through the Expropriation Act and has also denounced the country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Additionally, he has offered refugee status to members of the lobby group in the U.S. AfriForum shared images of its officials at the White House with visitor tags on their social media platforms.
The lobby group asserts that the Afrikaner community in South Africa is facing threats, pointing to the deaths of Afrikaner farmers and land policies that endanger the white minority. In response, Ramaphosa rebuked the actions of AfriForum and Solidarity leaders as counterproductive to nation-building efforts, emphasizing the importance of addressing domestic issues internally. He expressed a willingness to engage with Trump to resolve the impasse with his administration.
The meetings organized by the lobby group come amidst reports of challenges faced by South African diplomats in securing meetings with the Trump administration. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in South Africa, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was absent from the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.
Various political groups and opposition parties in South Africa have condemned AfriForum and Solidarity, criticizing their actions as irresponsible and based on misinformation that undermines the country. Some have chastised AfriForum for pursuing diplomatic channels with the U.S. without considering the negative repercussions of their campaign of misinformation.
AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel defended the delegation’s actions, accusing President Ramaphosa of exacerbating divisions and endangering Afrikaans-speaking cultural communities. Kriel highlighted Ramaphosa’s role in the Expropriation Act and his failure to address issues such as farmer murders and incendiary slogans. The group reiterated its concerns over the impact of the executive orders on Afrikaners and ordinary South Africans to key individuals working closely with the president.
Former South African president Jacob…
Zuma’s political party, Umkhonto Wesizwe, has lodged a treason complaint against AfriForum, alleging that the organization is disseminating false information in an attempt to sway support for Trump.
