Trump pursuing ‘white supremacy agenda’ – South Africa’s international relations minister
To add to already strained relations between South Africa and the United States of America (US), South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation minister has accused US President Donald Trump of pursuing a white supremacy agenda.
Reflecting on the widely-publicised May meeting in the Oval Office between top South African and US officials, Minister Ronald Lamola told CNN‘s Donie O’Sullivan that it was “excruciatingly difficult.”
“It was excruciatingly difficult [to see] that there’s fearmongering to pursue the agenda of white supremacy.”
O’Sullivan travelled to South Africa to investigate allegations of a “white genocide” and asked Lamola whether Trump is pursuing a white supremacist agenda.
“Yes, I think so,” responded Lamola. “With the programme to take white Afrikaners from South Africa, it’s a clear programme to back up the issue of white supremacy.”
“When you look at the Geneva Convention, they don’t fit the definition of a refugee,” addeed Lamola.
The White House disputed the claims, telling CNN that Trump was approaching the refugee issue with “a humanitarian heart”.
Strained South African-US relations
Preparations for the first G20 summit ever hosted on African soil have been overshadowed by a sharp escalation in tensions after Trump announced on 7 November that no American officials would attend the gathering in Johannesburg on 22–23 November.
Trump said on Truth Social that the summit was a “total disgrace”, citing alleged “human rights abuses” in South Africa.
He vowed that the US would “sit this one out entirely”, marking an unprecedented boycott of a G20 meeting by Washington.
Trump said that South Africa “shouldn’t even be in the Gs anymore,” referring to the Group of 20 major economies .
Spokesperson for South Africa’s DIRCO, Chrispin Phiri, has dismissed the remarks, telling Newsday that “drawing on our own journey from racial and ethnic division to democracy, South Africa is uniquely positioned to champion within the G20 a future of genuine solidarity.”
This is “where shared prosperity bridges deep inequalities, and collective action for sustainability that centres the development to address the impact of colonialism of the African continent.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed the move by the US as “their loss”, saying South Africa would symbolically hand over the G20 presidency to “an empty chair” reserved for the United States.
He urged Washington to reconsider what he called an increasingly isolationist posture. The boycott caps months of rapidly deteriorating relations during Trump’s second term.
The rift widened early in 2025 when Trump signed Executive Order 14204, condemning South Africa’s Expropriation Bill as discriminatory against white landowners.
It revived a controversy he ignited during his first term. In 2018, he directed then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to probe “large-scale killing of farmers” in South Africa.
Africa Check debunked the claims as overstated, noting that while farm attacks are a serious issue, they affect all racial groups.
It arrives amid strained U.S.-South Africa ties, exacerbated by Pretoria’s International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and its deepening BRICS partnerships.
This year, Trump issued an executive order in February fast-tracking refugee status for white Afrikaner farmers, whom he claimed were facing “genocide.”
South African officials have described Trump’s claims as “misinformed and inflammatory,” and called for constructive engagement on global challenges, “not baseless rhetoric that undermines multilateral institutions.”
Trump has since set a refugee admission cap of 7,500 for fiscal year 2026, a significant decrease from the previous year’s 125,000 cap.
It also sharply cut USAID funding, including PEPFAR HIV programmes relied upon by millions.
The strains have also been geopolitical: South Africa’s 2023 International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocide angered some US lawmakers.
In July Congress passed the US–South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act, targeting senior ANC figures over alleged antisemitism and ties to Russia and Iran.
Pretoria’s non-aligned stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, coupled with a deepening BRICS partnership with China, has further alienated Washington.
The US has repeatedly threatened to eject South Africa from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), jeopardising more than billions in bilateral trade.
Ramaphosa has said he still hopes to reach a “meaningful deal” on trade and diplomatic cooperation.
Pretoria has said that the partnership is “not merely transactional” but essential for long-term progress, and is committing to diplomatic efforts to consolidate it.
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The call for racial seperation by the Ruling Black only ANC Government, is clutching on straws, and will end at the next Municipal Election of 2026 and beyond.
Truth rules, there is really no whites in Africa, only “Africans”.
Get used to Iit all of you xenophobic “blacks”?.
We are one African,and thats the way it will remain.
We are the cradle of mankind, get used to It, because all roads lead from the Mother City of Cape Town to Cairo and beyond.
Live and love each other. There is only one Earth.
The thought of an external and Alien invasion, demands of us to become one Rainbow Nation.
Let’s behave together as one common and proven African DNA.
We cannot hide from this real and proven truth.
We are are all Proudly AFRICAN.
BRICS+ will lead us to this new Utophia.