President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to meet President Donald Trump in the US this week amid escalating tensions between the two countries.
The visit aims to reset the strategic relationship between SA and the US, the two leaders set to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues.
Recent tensions between the two countries have arisen due to claims about a “genocide” against Afrikaners in SA, which the government has denied.
Last week, a group of Afrikaners left for the US after they were granted refugee status by Trump's administration in February.
Ramaphosa is hoping the visit will help counter false claims repeatedly pushed by Trump that white Afrikaner farmers are victims of a genocide.
“They are being killed, and we don’t want to see people being killed,” Trump told US journalists last week.
DA leader John Steenhuisen has welcomed the meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa, seeing it as an opportunity to dispel misconceptions about SA, while EFF leader Julius Malema has criticised it.
“It’s a waste of time,” Malema said.
“If he wants them to start treating him differently and is going to beg them to attend the G20, he is going have to compromise some of the fundamental policies of this country, which we are not prepared [to accept].”
POLL | What should Ramaphosa prioritise during his meeting with Trump?
Image: Gulshan Khan/Getty Images/Reuters/Leah Millis
President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to meet President Donald Trump in the US this week amid escalating tensions between the two countries.
The visit aims to reset the strategic relationship between SA and the US, the two leaders set to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues.
Recent tensions between the two countries have arisen due to claims about a “genocide” against Afrikaners in SA, which the government has denied.
Last week, a group of Afrikaners left for the US after they were granted refugee status by Trump's administration in February.
Ramaphosa is hoping the visit will help counter false claims repeatedly pushed by Trump that white Afrikaner farmers are victims of a genocide.
“They are being killed, and we don’t want to see people being killed,” Trump told US journalists last week.
DA leader John Steenhuisen has welcomed the meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa, seeing it as an opportunity to dispel misconceptions about SA, while EFF leader Julius Malema has criticised it.
“It’s a waste of time,” Malema said.
“If he wants them to start treating him differently and is going to beg them to attend the G20, he is going have to compromise some of the fundamental policies of this country, which we are not prepared [to accept].”
TimesLIVE
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