May 21 (UPI) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet with President Donald Trump Wednesday to talk about relations, both trade and diplomatic.
“The trade relations between South Africa and the United States will be the focus of my working visit,” wrote South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to his X account Tuesday, “We aim to strengthen and consolidate relations between our two countries.”
South African Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen said via social media Tuesday that he had a “constructive meeting” with U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Greer in Washington.
“Trade is essential between our two countries and we are determined to ensure that access for agricultural products remains open in a mutually beneficial way. Trade means jobs and a growing economy,” Steenhuisen said.
However, it is also likely that the two will discuss the relationship between the two nations in general, as the Trump administration has cut off aid to South Africa and publicly leveled accusations that the South African government has backed violence against the Afrikaners, the White South Africans, whom the United States has begun to accept as refugees, despite the fact that Trump suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program on the first day of his second term.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier in May that Afrikaners fleeing persecution are welcome in the United States.
“The South African government has treated these people terribly — threatening to steal their private land and subjected them to vile racial discrimination. The Trump Administration is proud to offer them refuge in our great country.”
“We all know as South Africans both Black and White is that there is no genocide here,” Ramaphosa said Friday. “We are not genociders. We are not committing any act of hatred, act of retribution or violence against anyone,” Ramaphosa said.
White South Africans maintain control of a majority of the land and much of the county’s wealth after apartheid ended in 1994.
“The false narratives about a genocide are not a reflection of who we are as a nation,” Ramaphosa further stated Friday, “and during our working visit to the U.S. we will be advancing a proudly South African message.”