Afrikaner asylum in the US: We shouldn’t call them ‘refugees’ - Max du Preez
Speaking at the annual Nampo harvest festival in Bothaville this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the group had committed a 'cowardly act'.
The first group of Afrikaners from South Africa to arrive for resettlement listen to remarks from US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and US Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar (both out of frame), after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, on 12 May 2025. Picture: SAUL LOEB/AFP
CapeTalk's John Maytham is joined by journalist and author Max du Preez.
Listen below:
President Cyril Ramaphosa has used the annual Nampo harvest festival in the Free State to share his views on the group of white Afrikaners who this week arrived in the United States as refugees.
During an impromptu press briefing, Ramaphosa said the group had committed a 'cowardly act'.
In February, US President Donald Trump announced that Afrikaner South Africans would be allowed to apply for refugee status.
This week, 58 Afrikaans-speaking, white South Africans arrived in the US.
So, does Du Preez agree with the President that the refugees are cowards?
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"It would be my first instinct to say that, but we don't know who they are. Perhaps there are one or two or three with real horror stories to tell."
- Max du Preez
The refugee status of the group is partly based on false allegations that land was being confiscated from Afrikaners.
"Bad things are happening [in South Africa]," claimed Trump earlier this year after President Ramaphosa signed into law the Expropriation Act.
"Generally speaking, I go along with the President [Ramaphosa], and certainly we shouldn't call them refugees."
- Max du Preez
"If Donald Trump were sincere and really wanted to save someone, he would go to Manenberg and save some of the children who die on a virtual daily basis, or to the killing fields of KwaZulu-Natal - those are the victims, not these people."
- Max Du Preez
ALSO READ: Afrikaners land in US: ‘This looks like an immigration programme’ – refugee rights expert
How, then, asks Maytham, ought we as South Africans and the South African media be engaging around the 'refugees'?
Du Preez suggests with humour.
"I've witnessed a healthy reaction countrywide, and that's one of joking about it, mocking it, I think that's a healthy response.
- Max du Preez
"I think we should not be drawn into the essence of the debate, because it's nonsense..."
- Max du Preez
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