President Cyril Ramaphosa is planning a meeting with United States President Donald Trump regarding the refugee status granted to a group of Afrikaners.
The critical meeting comes in the wake of a recent chartered flight that transported 49 Afrikaners to the US, leading to questions about their eligibility for refugee status.
President Ramaphosa addressed the issue on Monday at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where he made it clear that the beleaguered migrants did not conform to the established criteria for individuals deserving of refugee protection.
Ramaphosa said he spoke to Trump on Monday afternoon and told him that he had been provided with false information.
“I told him I would like to come and meet him so that we can discuss this matter further,” said Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa said that he clarified to the US president that some Afrikaners often resist change, preferring to uphold the remnants of apartheid-era practices.
On Monday morning, IOL reported that a chartered plane carrying 49 South African Afrikaners departed for the United States on Sunday night under Trump’s offer for the “discriminated” South African individuals and families to relocate.
The first batch of Afrikaner refugees left OR Tambo International Airport on a flight operated by the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based charter company Omni Air International, and are expected to land in Washington on Monday evening.
Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola said the notion being peddled, that Afrikaners are being persecuted in South Africa, is false.
“We understand it is 49 people who have taken up the offer for refugee status in the United States. Just to be clear, the South African government unequivocally states that these are not refugees. In a country like ours, some of us went to schools where we were taught Afrikaans and by the way Afrikaans is still a medium of instruction and language in many of our schools,” said Phiri.
“We have judges, ministers, former mayors, we have streets named after Afrikaner heroes and Afrikaner nationals in the liberation context as well. To this day, you can drive on Voortrekker Street in any town in South Africa.
“This idea that Afrikaners are being persecuted is completely false, let alone the fact that Afrikaners are not just white people. There are also Africans who are Afrikaners, so this is something that we have stated quite unequivocally, that we contest the status of them being refugees. But we also said we are not going to stand in the way,” he said.
The group of 49 left the country on their South African passports and the government in Pretoria said there is no intention to deprive them of citizenship.
Phiri however highlighted that once the individuals are accepted into the United States refugee system, they cannot be returned to South Africa by the US government – for any reason.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
IOL News
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