SA govt unhappy over first resettlement of white Afrikaners to US

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South Africa had “expressed concern” to the United States after reports it will accept from next week the first white Afrikaners it had offered resettlement, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

US media reported that Donald Trump’s administration plans to resettle the first group of white South Africans to the United States from as early as Monday, after he accused Pretoria of “racial discrimination” against them.

The South African government had via diplomatic channels “expressed concerns with the information conveyed that the United States has commenced with processing alleged refugees from South Africa”, the foreign ministry said.

“We reiterate that allegations of discrimination are unfounded,” it said in a statement.

“It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being ‘refugees’ is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy,” the statement said.

Diplomatic row

Trump is locked in a diplomatic row with South Africa over a land expropriation act that the Republican leader says will lead to the takeover of white-owned farms.

Trump, whose tycoon ally Elon Musk was born in South Africa, has said the law signed in January would “enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation”.

It allows the government, as a matter of public interest, to decide on expropriations without compensation – but only in exceptional circumstances.

The resettlement plan was first reported by US investigative outlet The Lever, which quoted an April 30 memo saying that the South Africans were scheduled to arrive “within a few days”.

Washington was preparing to resettle up to 1 000 Afrikaners this year, The Lever said, quoting a government source.

National Public Radio (NPR) and the New York Times said the group was scheduled to arrive next Monday, although the Times quoted officials saying the date could change depending on logistics.

Trump said in February he would prioritise access to a refugee programme “for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” despite halting refugee arrivals to the United States immediately after taking office.

He also issued an executive order to freeze US aid to South Africa over the law.

The Afrikaners are descendants of European colonists, mainly of Dutch extraction.

English and Afrikaner colonists ruled South Africa until 1994 under an apartheid system in which the black majority were deprived of political and economic rights.