No Thanks! White South Africans Tell Trump
White South African settlers have rejected an offer by US President Donald Trump to resettle them as refugees, insisting they would rather remain in the country and challenge what they describe as injustices under Black majority rule.
Mr Trump signed an executive order on Friday cutting US aid to South Africa, citing a recently enacted land expropriation law that he claims unfairly targets White landowners.
The order also directs US agencies to assist Afrikaners—descendants of Dutch and French settlers—seeking to flee South Africa due to alleged racial discrimination, including land seizures.
Despite the offer, many White South Africans said they had no interest in leaving.
“If you haven’t got any problems here, why would you want to go?” said Neville van der Merwe, a 78-year-old pensioner in Bothasig, near Cape Town. is quoted by Al-Jazeera.
“There hasn’t been any really bad [people] taking over our land, the people are carrying on like normal, and you know, what are you going to do over there?”
Trump’s order claims the US “shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”
It also directs US agencies to halt nearly $440 million in foreign assistance to South Africa unless deemed necessary, citing the land policy and the country’s stance against Israel in the war in Gaza.
The South African government dismissed Trump’s claims, accusing him of misinformation and using the issue to push a political agenda.
“It is of great concern that the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid,” the government said in a statement.
Officials criticised the US for granting refugee status to a group they described as still among South Africa’s most economically privileged while simultaneously deporting vulnerable asylum seekers from other parts of the world.
“It is disappointing to observe that such narratives seem to have found favour among decision-makers in the United States,” the statement said.
South Africa has defended the land reform law as an effort to redress historical inequalities stemming from centuries of White-minority rule.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has maintained that land redistribution is necessary for social and economic justice, denying that it unfairly targets White farmers.
ligadwah@businessdayafrica.org