Lamola slams ‘race-based’ US Afrikaner resettlement project

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has rejected the United States’ Afrikaner resettlement programme, describing it as race-based and insisting that there is no persecution of Afrikaners in South Africa.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Lamola said the South African government did not support the programme but would not prevent people from returning to the country.

“The Afrikaner resettlement programme, which is clearly race-based, is clearly targeted to those who are only Afrikaners. We have said that the South African government does not agree with it, because it’s race-based, and there is no persecution.”

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Lamola said Pretoria’s position was that the programme did not meet the internationally recognised definition of a refugee.

Afrikaner ‘refugees on vacation’ in South Africa?

He also questioned the circumstances of some South Africans who have travelled back to the country after being resettled in the US.

“Some of them you might have seen in the recent news reports, they do visit South Africa. How can a refugee be on a vacation tour to the country where they come from as refugees?” he said.

There are numerous reports of Afrikaners leaving the country only to try and re- enter in less than a month. It was recently reported that an Afrikaner family admitted under the programme, returned to South Africa for medical treatment after spending only 15 days in the US, although the family was subsequently denied re-entry because of travel-document issues.

His comments come as Washington continues to implement a policy specifically prioritising Afrikaners from South Africa for refugee admissions.

In May, the Trump administration increased the US refugee admissions ceiling for the 2026 financial year from 7,500 to 17,500, with the additional admissions allocated to Afrikaners from South Africa. The US determination says Afrikaners may, if otherwise qualified, be considered refugees within their country of nationality or habitual residence.

The programme was established by US President Donald Trump in 2025, with the administration citing what it described as unjust racial discrimination against Afrikaners.

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Constitutional right of those who want to return

Pretoria has consistently disputed the US’s characterisation of Afrikaners as refugees. In May 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa said those being resettled did not meet the definition of a refugee because, in his view, they were not fleeing persecution.

Lamola said South Africa would nevertheless respect the constitutional rights of those who wanted to return.

“We have said we do not agree with it, but we will not interfere with the programme, because in terms of our constitution, people have got rights,” he said.

“And if they want to come to South Africa, they are welcome. We have worked very hard as a country to preserve our unity in diversity, where all colours can live together, black, white, Indians, and every person who finds themselves within the constitutional parameters of our country. And it is against that background that our society’s strength is in that diversity,” he said.

The minister’s comments come amid strained relations between Pretoria and Washington, with the Trump administration having raised concerns over South Africa’s land reform policies, black economic empowerment and the use of the “kill the boer” chant.

The two governments have also been seeking to maintain economic engagement despite the political disagreements.

Lamola welcomed the US Congress’s move to reauthorise the African Growth and Opportunity Act. He went on to thank Congress for supporting the renewal. However, the process was not yet fully settled, because the US president still had to sign the legislation.

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