Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says the Cabinet considers the US’ decision to grant refugee status to a group of 59 Afrikaners is “misinformed”.
Speaking to reporters at a post-Cabinet meeting press conference on Thursday, 15 May, Ntshavheni said: “The decision by the United States to confer refugee status to a group of Afrikaner South Africans is misinformed, as they do not fit the definition of refugees as set out in the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.
“Cabinet further reiterated that allegations of discrimination are unfounded and do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and refugee law.”
The first group of white Afrikaners claiming to have faced persecution in South Africa who have been granted refugee status by the US arrived in Washington on Monday, 12 May.
Read more: Let’s not call these Afrikaners refugees — they’re background extras in Maga’s noisy scam
Their arrival follows an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump in February, in which he authorised his administration to “prioritise” the admission and resettlement of Afrikaners in the US “who are victims of unjust racial discrimination”.
In the weeks that followed, the Trump administration deployed teams to Pretoria to screen white South Africans for consideration, studying more than 8,000 requests from people expressing interest in becoming refugees and eventually identifying 100 Afrikaners who could possibly be approved, according to a New York Times report.
As Cabinet, we express the view that there are no refugees – they do not meet the criteria for refugee status, there is no violence against farmers.
Welcoming the “refugees” on Monday evening, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau claimed that they had been “living under a shadow of violence and terror” in South Africa.
Pretoria has repeatedly denied that Afrikaners face persecution in South Africa. As International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola and others have stated, there is no evidence that white farmers are being singled out for murder.
Trump’s accusations that their land is being confiscated followed the recent passage of the Expropriation Act, which allows the government to expropriate land without compensation in some circumstances, Daily Maverick reported.
But so far the Act has not been used.
Trump’s allegations of a “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa are not borne out by the data either.
Read more: ‘We must be clear there’s no white genocide in SA’, frustrated MPs urge
“Moreover, the South African Police Service statistics on farm-related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime or genocide targeted at farmers generally or any race group,” Ntshavheni told repoters.
The minister in the Presidency was unable to answer questions from reporters on when the next group of “refugees” would be leaving South Africa, saying: “It’s not our job to be briefing on when they’re moving. You must go to Mr Kallie Kriel and his AfriForum and Solidary… for those updates.
“Our job is just to make sure when they leave, they don’t leave any debt; they don’t leave any crime in the country. And we all know that the reasons that they are leaving are not true. As Cabinet, we express the view that there are no refugees – they do not meet the criteria for refugee status, there is no violence against farmers,” she said.
Ntshavheni questioned how many of the 59 refugees were actually farmers.
Ramaphosa’s working visit to the US
The arrival of the “refugees” in America and the continued deterioration of diplomatic relations between South Africa and the US comes as President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to visit the US next week, between 19 and 22 May.
Read more: Trump says Ramaphosa will visit him next week
Ramaphosa is expected to meet Trump at the White House on Wednesday, 21 May, to discuss “bilateral, regional and global issues of interest”, his office said this week.
While Ramaphosa is expected to pitch a trade deal to Trump, Ntshavheni was scant on the details of this potential package and who would be part of Ramaphosa’s delegation in Washington.
There is no one who invites a guest to mistreat them, so we are expecting the highest level of decorum and necessary protocols to be afforded.
“But as the President has indicated, there will be a deal that we will offer, we will negotiate a package and that package will also be beneficial to South Africa,” she said. “We cannot work against the interest of South Africa and its people.”
Fielding questions on whether the government is worried about the visit after confrontations between Trump and other state leaders in recent months – most notably the disastrous meeting between the US president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February – Ntshavehni said: “We are not worried.”
She confirmed that Ramaphosa had been invited by Trump, and said the government is “confident that the invitation comes from a good place” with the intention to engage and clarify.
“We expect very cordial discussions, and as I’ve said previously, it doesn’t mean there will not be differences,” she said.
“There is no one who invites a guest to mistreat them, so we are expecting the highest level of decorum and necessary protocols to be afforded. It doesn’t mean we’ll agree on all matters – we’ll differ. But we believe that our relationship with the US is mutually beneficial.”
US bans agencies from working on G20
On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that the White House National Security Council has ordered US agencies and departments to cease work on South Africa’s G20, citing two people familiar with the issue.
The move follows Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s public statements to boycott the summit in November over the claims that land is being expropriated under the Expropriation Act.
In a press conference on Monday, Trump said he didn’t know how he could attend the G20 summit, which South Africa is hosting in Johannesburg in November, “unless that situation is taken care of”.
Read more: Geopolitical tensions pose unprecedented challenges for SA’s G20 presidency during Trump 2.0
Ntshavheni said the government had not received any official communication that the US would stop its involvement in South Africa’s G20 processes.
“We’ve got sous sherpas and sherpas that that information would’ve come through. We have not received any communication from the US administration about such a ban – we are reading it from the media like everybody else. There has not been any official communication to ourselves,” she said. DM