by Joel B. Pollak
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa slammed Afrikaner refugees who left for the United States on Tuesday, saying that it was “cowardly” for them to leave racial discrimination and threatened expropriation.
Ramaphosa spoke the day after after the first flight of 49 white Afrikaners granted refugee status by the U.S. arrived in Washington, DC. As many as 70,000 more have sought to apply to enter the U.S. under the policy.
Ramaphosa, who styles himself as a pro-business moderate, and is set to speak to U.S. President Donald Trump later this month, made the remark at a surprise visit to a local agricultural convention, where he apparently aimed to change perceptions of the government as hostile to farmers — one reinforced when he signed the Expropriation Act earlier this year, allowing the seizure of property without compensation.
He said:
They may be feeling excited they’ve left the country, they’ve got somebody like [US] President [Donald] Trump, but in the end it’s a group of South Africans demonstrating that the changes and transformation that we are embarking upon here, they are not favourably disposed to it and that’s why they are running away.
And if you look at all national groups in our country, black and white, we’ve stayed in this country because it’s our country, and we must not run away from our problems. We must stay here and solve our problems. So, when you run away you’re a coward and that’s a real cowardly act and I expect every South African to stay here, and we work together, and we solve our problems.
“Transformation” refers to South Africa’s policy of redistributing wealth by to race, under penalty of law.
Ramaphosa’s remarks were his strongest yet, after claiming earlier that the refugees did not meet that definition. He said that they were yearning to restore the racial segregation of apartheid, and that they were running away from “transformation” — a claim echoed by his party.