President Cyril Ramaphosa has criticised the Afrikaner rights group AfriForum and the trade union Solidarity for their recent visit to the US, claiming they are sowing divisions within South Africa.
The two organisations travelled to Washington following an executive order from President Donald Trump regarding refugee status for certain South Africans.
During their discussions, they raised concerns about the Expropriation Act, the BELA Act and crimes against white farmers.
AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said that US officials took these issues seriously, although the details of whom the groups met in Washington remain unclear.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Basic Education Lekgotla in Ekurhuleni on Thursday, Ramaphosa said that South Africans should work together to address their issues rather than seeking support abroad.
‘I’ve heard that AfriForum and Solidarity have met representatives in the US government, and they’re doing precisely what we said as South Africans we should not do. We should stop running to other countries. We should discuss our own problems here and find solutions. And that in so many ways confirms our sovereignty,’ Ramaphosa told journalists.
[WATCH] President Ramaphosa on AfriForum says, “I’ve heard that AfriForum and Solidarity have met representatives in the US government, and they’re doing precisely what we said as South Africans we should not do… We should stop running to other countries. We should discuss our… pic.twitter.com/sr1DjX97Lm
— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 27, 2025
He added, ‘It confirms our standing as a free and independent nation, a nation that can stand proud amongst many other nations and being able to say we can solve our own problems. We may differ here but we will find solutions to whatever problems we have.’
‘… We will never be able to build a nation by just going to complain to other nations in the world. We need to be sending a clear message to them that as far as we are concerned, as proud South Africans, we prefer that we should all stay here and solve our problems. Already, what they are doing has spawned divisions in our nation. That is not a nation-building process — running around the world trying to have your problems solved.’
‘You are just sowing divisions because then a number of South Africans start looking at others negatively, and I don’t think that is the right way to handle our problems.’
Also read:
Ramaphosa rejects AfriForum meeting: ‘They peddled lies about SA’
Picture: @GovernmentZA / X
