Ramaphosa to hold another meeting with Trump over US granting refugee status to group of Afrikaners
CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa will hold another meeting with US President Donald Trump to continue discussions regarding his decision to grant refugee status to a group of Afrikaners.
Ramaphosa also said that the group of 49 Afrikaners who left for the US on a chartered flight on Sunday did not fit the definition for someone who deserved refugee status.
Ramaphosa was addressing the issue during a panel discussion at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on Monday.
ALSO READ:
• Lamola maintains 49 Afrikaners who left for US don't qualify to be refugees
• Afrikaners relocating to US could lose their refugee status should they decide to return to SA
• SA transport officials detail flight plan for aircraft carrying 49 Afrikaners relocating to US
President Ramaphosa said that he informed Trump during a telephone conversation that Afrikaners were not being persecuted in South Africa and that those who make the claim were those opposed to transformation.
He told the African CEO Forum that it was just a fringe grouping in the country that's making the false claims and Afrikaners don't qualify for refugee status.
"I said I'm going to come and meet him so we can discuss this matter further. So those who have fled are not being persecuted, they are not being hounded, they are not being treated badly. They are leaving ostensibly because they don't want to embrace the changes taking place in our country."
Ramaphosa said that South Africa was one of the only countries on the continent where the former minority powers were embraced and not driven out.
"And we have never driven them out of our country. So they are staying and making great progress."
Ramaphosa said he was not sure whether US billionaire Elon Musk would be part of the discussions but said that he would be attending with his own delegation.
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While the elite flaunt their wealth on social media, score tender after tender, fly business class, experience no load-shedding or water cuts, millions of South Africa's youth scavenge in the dust bin of opportunity for whatever dignity they can find. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading How do we justify youth unemployment rates that are the highest in the world — worse than some war-torn regions? According to figures from StatsSA, more than one in three young South Africans are not in employment, education or training. They are not lazy or waiting for a handout. They are simply shut out of a system riddled with corruption and inertia which no longer works for them — if it ever did. Thirty years into freedom, too many of our youth still go to township schools with broken toilets and overcrowded classrooms. They leave with matric certificates not worth the paper it is printed on and spend their days following the shade around their homes. It is not that they lack ambition, it's that the State lacks vision. It's our national shame. What makes this betrayal more cruel is the legacy of June 16. The youth of 1976 did not face bullets and teargas so that their grandchildren could be discarded by a government that carried so much promise when elected freely in 1994. They died to end apartheid, not to usher in a new form of economic exclusion. The ANC government has had more than thirty years to deliver on its promises. Instead, we now have a bloated cabinet, whose members call flying economy class 'sadistic', and rack up R200 million in travel expenses in a year while many South Africans live in squalor and go to bed hungry. There is nothing to celebrate this Youth Day. Not when hunger outpaces opportunity. Not when hope is rationed by who you know. Not when millions of young South Africans feel like outsiders in their own country. What we need now is not another Tintswalo speech. We need action. We need change. South Africa cannot afford to waste another generation. We need urgent, radical reforms – real skills development, real job creation, real leadership. The young must become the centre of economic policy, not an afterthought buried under slogans. Until then, spare us the Tintswalo speeches. Spare us the hashtags and the press conferences. There is no pride in pretending things are better than they are. On this Youth Day, we mourn potential denied. And we demand better. Lee Rondganger is the Deputy Editor of IOL. IOL Opinion Lee Rondganger Image: IOL Graphic
