Ramaphosa calls white South Africans who leave the country “cowards” after the US lets them stay as refugees

President Ramaphosa has referred to those who departed from South Africa as “cowards,” stating that true South Africans must remain in order to address the issues facing their nation.

The 59 white South Africans who relocated to the United States have been referred to as “cowards” by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who also asserted that “they’ll be back soon.”

The Afrikaners, who claimed to have experienced racial prejudice, were granted refugee status by US President Donald Trump, and they landed in the US on Monday.

However, Ramaphosa called their move a “sad moment for them” and claimed that those who wished to depart were dissatisfied with attempts to remedy the injustices of South Africa’s apartheid past.

“South Africans are tough people. We don’t flee from our issues. We have to remain here and work out our issues. You are a coward when you flee, and that is a true act of cowardice,” he continued.

The widely refuted assertion that there was a “genocide” of white farmers in South Africa was made by Trump and his close buddy, Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa.

The South African government has also been charged by the US with taking land away from white farmers without providing them with compensation.

Black farmers possess only a small portion of South Africa’s greatest farmland, with the majority still in white hands, more than 30 years after the white minority’s decades-long reign came to an end. This slow pace of change has angered many.

A contentious bill that President Ramaphosa signed in January permits the government to take privately owned land without paying compensation in specific situations when it is judged to be “equitable and in the public interest.”

However, according to the administration, no land has been taken under the act as of yet.

The white Afrikaners, who are primarily descended from Dutch settlers, have been promised resettlement by Trump, who claims they were escaping a “dreadful situation” in South Africa.

Speaking Monday at a Free State province agricultural show, Ramaphosa said that Afrikaners were relocating to the United States because they were not “favourably disposed” to initiatives meant to solve the nation’s problems.

“All national groups in our nation, both black and white, have remained here because it is our nation and we cannot flee our hardships. Ramaphosa stated, “We have to remain here and find solutions to our issues.”

“There is no country like South Africa, so I can bet you that they will be back soon,” he continued. Some social media users took exception at his “coward” comment, denouncing it as an insult to resentful white South Africans.

Leading US officials greeted the Afrikaner group, saying they had been “living under a shadow of violence and terror” in South Africa.

Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau greeted the South Africans when they touched down at Dulles airport, which is close to Washington, DC, on Monday, saying, “Welcome to the land of the free.”

In the welcome area, which had red, white, and blue balloons on the walls, several people carried small children and waved tiny American flags.

In Abidjan, Ivory Coast, President Ramaphosa earlier Monday told an Africa CEO meeting that he had just told Trump over the phone that the US assessment of the situation was “not true.”

Dismissing allegations of Afrikaner persecution, he continued, “We are the only country on the continent where the colonists came to stay and we have never driven them out of our country.”

Numerous white South Africans who arrived in the US on Monday, according to Ramaphosa, “don’t fit the bill” for refugees.

The South African leader stated that he will be meeting with Trump shortly to discuss the matter.

Trump has stated that unless the “situation is taken care of,” he will not attend the next G20 meeting in South Africa.