WATCH | Ntshavheni to AfriForum: ‘If you don’t like SA, take Trump’s offer’

Ntshavheni

Cape Town – Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, has dismissed concerns that AfriForum and Solidarity’s US visit put South Africa at a disadvantage.

The two groups met White House officials and submitted a memorandum requesting humanitarian aid for Afrikaans community development.

Their visit followed US President Donald Trump’s executive order freezing financial aid to South Africa over the Land Expropriation Act and the ICJ genocide case.

Trump also offered refugee status to Afrikaners, which the groups rejected.

Speaking during a media briefing in Parliament on Thursday, Ntshavheni criticised their actions, saying that not all Afrikaners support them and reaffirming the government’s diplomatic efforts with the US, particularly regarding trade agreements like AGOA.

“I don’t know why they continue to go and peddle lies.

“If they don’t like South Africa so much, if they don’t like the efforts of [the] government to redress the inequalities of the past, why don’t they take up President Trump on his offer to resettle in the United States?”

President Cyril Ramaphosa also condemned the visit, urging South Africans to resolve internal issues domestically instead of seeking foreign intervention.

He emphasised unity and reiterated South Africa’s commitment to diplomatic and trade discussions with the US.

‘I’ve heard that AfriForum and Solidarity have met representatives in the US government, and they’re doing precisely what we said as South Africans we should not do. We should stop running to other countries. We should discuss our own problems here and find solutions. And that in so many ways confirms our sovereignty,’ Ramaphosa told journalists  on the sidelines of the Basic Education Lekgotla in Ekurhuleni on Thursday.

He added, ‘It confirms our standing as a free and independent nation, a nation that can stand proud amongst many other nations and being able to say we can solve our own problems. We may differ here but we will find solutions to whatever problems we have.’

‘… We will never be able to build a nation by just going to complain to other nations in the world. We need to be sending a clear message to them that as far as we are concerned, as proud South Africans, we prefer that we should all stay here and solve our problems. Already, what they are doing has spawned divisions in our nation. That is not a nation-building process — running around the world trying to have your problems solved.’

‘You are just sowing divisions because then a number of South Africans start looking at others negatively, and I don’t think that is the right way to handle our problems.’

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