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IOL News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Lamola refutes claims of persecution as US relocation programme begins
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has slammed reports of white genocide following the departure of 49 white South Africans to the US on Sunday. Image: File International Relations Minister, Ronald Lamola said there is no proof that white farmers in South Africa are being persecuted. This comes as the first group of 49 farmers accepted Donald Trump's offer to be relocated to the US and left the country on Sunday. The group, which included families and small children, was expected to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on Monday. Their departure also comes after US President Donald Trump in February accused the South African government of racial discrimination against white farmers and subsequently announced a programme to relocate them in the US. Lamola, who addressed the media on Monday, indicated that there is no evidence that backs claims of persecution. "There is no data at all that backs that there is persecution of white South Africans or Afrikaners for that matter. The police statistics, which we are prepared to share and release, do not back these claims. In fact, more farm dwellers are affected by crime. White farmers are also affected by crime just like any other citizen of this country. So, this claim is not factual and is without any basis," said Lamola. Last week, Deputy Minister Alvin Botes held a cordial discussion with the US Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau after the US had indicated that it had started processing alleged refugees from South Africa and will begin resettling these citizens in the US. Botes indicated that South Africa acknowledges that the determination of refugee status requires a factual assessment in light of the prevailing circumstances. "We reiterate that allegations of discrimination are unfounded. The South Africa Police Services statistics on farm related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race. "There are sufficient structures available within South Africa to address concerns of discrimination. Moreover, even if there are allegations of discrimination, it is our view that these do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law," said Botes in a statement. Lamola also added that the refugees who have already left the country were taken through a vetting process to determine their criminal records and other details. "There was a process of vetting for the South Africans who have left with the checking of their criminal records and all the necessary procedures. As I have said already, they can't provide any proof of persecution because there is none. There is not any form of persecution to white Afrikaners," he said. Deputy President Paul Mashatile said while everyone should stay in the country, South Africa cannot force those who want to leave on their own accord to remain. 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 He was speaking outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court, in KwaZulu-Natal, on Monday, where he attended proceedings of the inquest into the death of former ANC President-General and Nobel Peace Laureate, Chief Albert Luthuli. 'On the issue of the Afrikaners going to the US, our position is that South Africa is a democracy. We have set ourselves a standard to believe that it belongs to all who live in it, black and white. We would like everybody to stay. We want white people in this country, the farmers; we want them to work in this country, but we can't stop anybody who decides, 'I do not want to stay in this country'. But we are continuing to build this country,' Mashatile said. Additional reporting Gcwalisile Khanyile Cape Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
Trump administration defends Afrikaner refugee program amid group's US arrival
A flight carrying 59 refugees from South Africa landed in the United States on Monday afternoon -- as the Trump administration insists that the expedited process for white South Africans to seek refuge in the United States has nothing to do with race. The South African refugees' arrival also comes amid the administration's efforts to halt refugee programs from other countries. Hours before the flight arrived at Dulles International Airport, President Donald Trump defended his administration's decision to offer refugee status to the Afrikaners -- a white minority group in South Africa. The president said that the asylum program is because there is a race-based genocide in the country. "They happen to be white, but whether they're white or black makes no difference to me, but white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa, and the newspapers and the media, television media doesn't even talk about it," Trump said during remarks at the White House. Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this group of South Africans "has faced racial persecution." She also went on to claim their farmland is being taken away. However, a law passed by South Africa earlier this year does not allow land to be expropriated without an agreement with the owner. South Africa's government has pushed back, saying the "allegations of discrimination are unfounded." "The South Africa Police Services statistics on farm related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race," the South African government said in a statement last week. "There are sufficient structures available within South Africa to address concerns of discrimination. Moreover, even if there are allegations of discrimination, it is our view that these do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law. Trump adviser Elon Musk has repeatedly talked about South Africa, his country of birth, on his social media account saying that the country is anti-white. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greeted a group of about three dozen South Africans, many waving American flags, after they got off the plane at the airport in Northern Virginia. Asked about the administration's apparent prioritization of white South African refugees over others who are persecuted in their countries of origin, Landau harkened back to the pause on refugee admissions that Trump implemented when he retook the White House. "That pause, of course, was subject, from the very beginning to exceptions where it was determined that this would be in the interest of the United States. Some of the criteria are making sure that refugees did not pose any challenge to our national security and that they can be assimilated easily into our country," Landau said. "All of these folks who have just come in today have been carefully vetted pursuant to our refugee standards, and whether or not the broader refugee programs for other people around the world will be lifted is still an ongoing consideration." In March, Trump said that he would give some South African farmers and their families a pathway to citizenship. In the same month, the Trump administration kicked out the South African ambassador to the U.S. In February, Trump signed an executive order that froze all aid to South Africa. The South African government said in a statement that the order "lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa's profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid." "It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship," the South African government said in the statement.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
White South Africans Land in US as First Trump Refugees
The first group of refugees brought into the U.S. since Donald Trump became President followed an unusual path. On his first day back in office, he suspended all refugee admissions to the U.S.—upending resettlement plans for thousands fearing persecution and violence. Eighteen days later, he announced an exception for white South Africans who 'are victims of unjust racial discrimination.' On Monday, the U.S. welcomed a chartered plane carrying about 50 Afrikaners, marking a new phase of the U.S. refugee program that looks nothing like what came before it. Trump's order specifically referred to Afrikaners, descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1600s and controlled the country from 1948 to 1994 through the racial separation laws known as apartheid. Shortly after their plane landed at Dulles International Airport in Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., the South Africans stood in front of news cameras holding American flags as they were greeted by Trump administration officials. 'You are really welcome here and we respect what you have had to deal with these last few years,' said Christopher Landau, deputy Secretary of State. Landau called the Afrikaners 'quality seeds' who will 'bloom' in the U.S. 'As you know—a lot of you I think are farmers, right—when you have quality seeds, you can put them in foreign soil and they will blossom. They will bloom,' Landau told the families. 'We are excited to welcome you here to our country where we think you will bloom.' Trump's carve out for Afrikaners was partly spurred in reaction to a 2024 South African law that seeks to address the concentration of agricultural land in the hands of white South Africans. 'Farmers are being killed,' Trump said Monday, when asked by a TIME reporter why Afrikaners were being accepted over refugees in other parts of Africa and the world. 'They happen to be white but whether they're white or black makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.' South African officials insist Trump's allegations of persecuted white South African farmers are unfounded. 'The South Africa Police Services statistics on farm-related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race,' the country's Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said in a recent statement. 'There are sufficient structures available within South Africa to address concerns of discrimination. Moreover, even if there are allegations of discrimination, it is our view that these do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law.' Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Friday the first flight from South Africa is part of a 'much larger-scale relocation effort' and said what Afrikaners face in South Africa 'fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created.' Another key Trump ally, Elon Musk, was born in South Africa and has pressed for the U.S. to do more to protect white South Africans from what he described on his X platform as 'white genocide'. Refugees coming into the U.S. are typically vetted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which routinely refers people fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries to safer countries like the U.S. The arrivals from South Africa were not vetted by that office. On Monday, The Episcopal Church refused a Trump administration demand that it help resettle the Afrikaners in the U.S. The protestant church has worked with the federal government for four decades through Episcopal Migration Ministries to help newly arrived refugees find jobs and places to live in the U.S. 'It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,' wrote the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Rev. Sean W. Rowe, in a letter explaining the protestant church's decision to completely stop working with the federal government on refugee resettlement. Rowe wrote that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has been 'essentially shut down' since January, and he was 'saddened and ashamed' that many refugees denied entrance to the U.S. had served alongside the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service. 'Jesus tells us to care for the poor and vulnerable as we would care for him, and we must follow that command,' Rowe wrote. The Trump administration is on track for a dramatic decline in new refugees this year. The Biden Administration admitted 100,034 people through its refugee program into the 2024 fiscal year, which ended in September. That was up from 60,014 in 2023, and 25,465 in 2022. During the 2024 fiscal year, the largest group of refugees—34,017—came from Africa, followed by 7,540 from Asia, 3,180 from Europe and Central Asia, 5,106 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 10,003 from the Near East and South Asia, according to figures from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Bill Frelick, director of the refugee and migrants rights division of Human Rights Watch, says the Trump administration's decision to limit refugee admissions to a few dozen white South Africans undermines decades of efforts by the U.S. to welcome people in need. 'It sends a message that unless you're a member of a privileged group that the U.S. has a preference for, the door is closed to you entirely,' Frelick says. Frelick notes that the U.N. has a system to determine which refugees 'are most at risk and in need for resettlement.' By ignoring that, he says, the Trump Administration is 'setting a terrible example to other countries around the world.' Write to Nik Popli at
Time Magazine
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Time Magazine
Trump Welcomes Planeload of South Africans, While Shutting Out Other Refugees
The first group of refugees brought into the U.S. since Donald Trump became President followed an unusual path. On his first day back in office, he suspended all refugee admissions to the U.S.—upending resettlement plans for thousands fearing persecution and violence. Eighteen days later, he announced an exception for white South Africans who 'are victims of unjust racial discrimination.' On Monday, the U.S. welcomed a chartered plane carrying about 50 Afrikaners, marking a new phase of the U.S. refugee program that looks nothing like what came before it. Trump's order specifically referred to Afrikaners, descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1600s and controlled the country from 1948 to 1994 through the racial separation laws known as apartheid. Trump's action is in part a reaction to a 2024 South African law that seeks to address the concentration of agricultural land in the hands of white South Africans. 'Farmers are being killed,' Trump said Monday, when asked by a TIME reporter why Afrikaners were being accepted over refugees in other parts of Africa and the world. 'They happen to be white but whether they're white or black makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.' South African officials insist Trump's allegations of persecuted white South African farmers are unfounded. 'The South Africa Police Services statistics on farm related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race,' the country's Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said in a recent statement. 'There are sufficient structures available within South Africa to address concerns of discrimination. Moreover, even if there are allegations of discrimination, it is our view that these do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law.' Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Friday the first flight from South Africa is part of a 'much larger-scale relocation effort' and said what Afrikaners face in South Africa 'fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created.' Another key Trump ally, Elon Musk, was born in South Africa and has pressed for the U.S. to do more to protect white South Africans from what he described on his X platform as 'white genocide'. Refugees coming into the U.S. are typically vetted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which routinely refers people fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries to safer countries like the U.S. The arrivals from South Africa were not vetted by that office. On Monday, The Episcopal Church refused a Trump administration demand that it help resettle the Afrikaners in the U.S. The protestant church has worked with the federal government for four decades through Episcopal Migration Ministries to help newly arrived refugees find jobs and places to live in the U.S. 'It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,' wrote the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Rev. Sean W. Rowe, in a letter explaining the protestant church's decision to completely stop working with the federal government on refugee resettlement. Rowe wrote that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has been 'essentially shut down' since January, and he was 'saddened and ashamed' that many refugees denied entrance to the U.S. had served alongside the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service. 'Jesus tells us to care for the poor and vulnerable as we would care for him, and we must follow that command,' Rowe wrote. The Trump administration is on track for a dramatic decline in new refugees this year. In the 2024 fiscal year, which ended in September, the U.S. admitted 100,034 people through its refugee program, up from 60,014 in 2023, and 25,465 in 2022. During the 2024 fiscal year, the largest group of refugees—34,017—came from Africa, followed by 7,540 from Asia, 3,180 from Europe and Central Asia, 5,106 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 10,003 from the Near East and South Asia, according to figures from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Bill Frelick, director of the refugee and migrants rights division of Human Rights Watch, says the Trump administration's decision to limit refugee admissions to a few dozen white South Africans undermines decades of efforts by the U.S. to welcome people in need. 'It sends a message that unless you're a member of a privileged group that the U.S. has a preference for, the door is closed to you entirely,' Frelick says. Frelick notes that the U.N. has a system to determine which refugees 'are most at risk and in need for resettlement.' By ignoring that, he says, the Trump Administration is 'setting a terrible example to other countries around the world.'
IOL News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Lamola says 'no proof of persecution' against white farmers in South Africa
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has slammed reports of white genocide following the departure of 49 white South Africans to the US on Sunday. Image: File International Relations Minister, Ronald Lamola said there is no proof that white farmers in South Africa are being persecuted. This comes as the first group of 49 farmers accepted Donald Trump's offer to be relocated to the United States of America and left the country on Sunday. The group, which included families and small children, was expected to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on Monday. Their departure also comes after US President Donald Trump in February accused the South African government of racial discrimination against white farmers and subsequently announced a programme to relocate them in the US. Lamola who addressed the media on Monday on the country's state of readiness for the upcoming G20 Summit later this year indicated that there is no evidence that backs claims of persecution. "There is no data at all that backs that there is persecution of white South Africans or Afrikaners for that matter. The police statistics which we are prepared to share and release, do not back these claims. In fact, more farm dwellers are affected by crime. White farmers are also affected by crime just like any other citizen of this country. So, this claim is not factual and is without any basis," said Lamola. Last week, Deputy Minister Alvin Botes held a cordial discussion with the United States Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau after the US had indicated that it had started processing alleged refugees from South Africa and will begin resettling these citizens in the United States. Botes indicated that South Africa acknowledges that the determination of refugee status requires a factual assessment in light of the prevailing circumstances. "We reiterate that allegations of discrimination are unfounded. The South Africa Police Services statistics on farm related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race. There are sufficient structures available within South Africa to address concerns of discrimination. Moreover, even if there are allegations of discrimination, it is our view that these do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law," said Botes in a statement. Lamola also added that the refugees who have already left the country were taken through a vetting process to determine their criminal records and other details. "There was a process of vetting for the South Africans who have left with the checking of their criminal records and all the necessary procedures. As I have said already, they can't provide any proof of persecution because there is none. There is not any form of persecution to white Afrikaners," he said.
