International Relations and Cooperations Minister, Ronald Lamola. Picture: X/@DIRCO_ZA
The SA government has hit back at US President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order against the country, claiming there is a campaign of misinformation and propaganda being peddled in Washington.
The order, which alleges human rights issues in South Africa, was issued in response to SA’s land policy that it claims allows the SA government to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation” and SA’s genocide case against US ally Israel at the International Court of Justice.
In response, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said the foundational premise of the order “lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid”.
“We are concerned by what seems to be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation. It is disappointing to observe that such narratives seem to have found favour among decision-makers in the United States of America,” the department added.
In the order, the US government said it would work to provide humanitarian aid to Afrikaans farmers and resettle them as refugees.
DIRCO said this was ironic given the criteria the US seemed to employ when deciding who to take in as refugees.
“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.”
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The order comes weeks after Trump ordered the suspension of all refugee admissions into the US and the reconfiguration of the admissions programme.
He claimed his country “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees”.
Afrikaans civil rights organisation AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel told The Citizen the organisation had noted Trump’s order but was committed to staying in South Africa.
“We have an appreciation for the fact that the US recognises the discrimination experienced by Afrikaners at the moment, but we do, however, see the future of Afrikaners in Africa.
“We were formed as a people in Africa and can only survive as a cultural community on the southern top of Africa.
ALSO READ: ‘We are here to stay’- AfriForum respond to Trump’s plans to resettle Afrikaaners as refugees
Last month, the US froze key HIV/AIDS funding from the US to SA as part of Trump’s “America First” agenda.
It sparked a diplomatic storm that also saw US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pull out of an upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg, claiming “anti-Americanism”.
While SA President Cyril Ramaphosa told the country this week that SA would not be bullied, Dirco reiterated the South African government’s commitment to “finding diplomatic solutions to any misunderstandings or disputes”.
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