South Africa's new US ambassador rejects white genocide claims
South Africa's newly appointed ambassador to Washington, Roelf Meyer, an Afrikaner himself, has dismissed Donald Trump's claims of a genocide against white Afrikaners as false. The dispute continues to strain relations as the US plans to admit thousands more Afrikaner refugees.
South Africa's newly appointed ambassador to the United States, Roelf Meyer, has firmly rejected President Donald Trump's repeated claims that a genocide is being carried out against South Africa's white Afrikaner minority. Meyer, who took up the post in April after relations between Washington and Pretoria soured, told the BBC that as a born Afrikaner himself he had the standing to say plainly that no such campaign exists.
Meyer was among the key negotiators who helped end apartheid in the 1990s, and the trust built between him and now-President Cyril Ramaphosa during those talks was reportedly one reason behind his appointment as ambassador.
Refugee programme expands
Last year Trump accused South Africa of white genocide during a White House meeting with Ramaphosa and launched a dedicated US refugee pathway for Afrikaners. Since then, nearly 13,000 refugees have been admitted, almost all of them South African. A notice sent to Congress this week indicates the administration plans to admit up to 17,500 more Afrikaners as refugees over the next year.
A White House spokeswoman told the BBC that Afrikaners were being raped, maimed, killed and driven from their land, and that Trump was providing them a humanitarian lifeline. However, claims of genocide against white South Africans have been rejected by political parties across the spectrum in the country, including those representing Afrikaners themselves.
Crime affects all communities
Meyer acknowledged that South Africa faces genuine challenges with crime, but stressed the problem is nationwide rather than confined to farms, noting that violence in the country's black townships is proportionally far more severe. Police data shows the majority of crime victims in South Africa are black. A former director of the US Refugee Assistance Programme has warned that applying the scheme to Afrikaners, who are unlikely to legally qualify as refugees, could divert resources from people fleeing war or ethnic cleansing.
Meyer said he hopes Trump will revoke the executive order underpinning the refugee programme, arguing South Africa has already addressed Washington's stated concerns.
