South African leader and Trump will meet next week after US took in white South Africans as refugees

By GERALD IMRAY and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press CAPE TOWN South Africa AP President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are scheduled to meet at the White House next week following assertions by Trump and denied by South Africa that genocide is being committed against white farmers in the majority Black country The meeting declared Wednesday by the South African ruling body and set for May also comes after the U S welcomed white South Africans as refugees this Monday the start of what the Trump administration reported is a larger relocation plan for minority Afrikaner farmers who Trump has claimed are being persecuted in their homeland because of their race South Africa denies the assertions and says whites in the majority Black country are not being singled out for persecution Ramaphosa s office stated he will be in the U S from Monday to Thursday of next week and will meet with Trump on Wednesday at the White House Ramaphosa s trip would aim to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries his office revealed The White House had no immediate comment on the meeting which would be Trump s first with the leader of a nation in Africa since he returned to office in January Related Articles Missouri lawmakers approve referendum to repeal abortion-rights amendment Prosecutor in Trump classified files incident takes th Amendment in private interview with Congress What the EPA s partial rollback of the forever chemical drinking water rule means Divisions emerge among House Republicans over how much to cut taxes and Medicaid in Trump s bill Trump surgeon general pick praised unproven psychedelic therapy revealed mushrooms helped her find love Trump has criticized South Africa s Black-led regime on multiple fronts and issued an executive order Feb cutting all U S funding to the country as punishment for what he explained were its anti-white policies at home and anti-American foreign agenda The Republican president has singled out South Africa over what the U S calls racist laws against whites and has accused the regime of fueling violence against white farmers The South African cabinet says the relatively small number of killings of white farmers should be condemned but are part of the country s problems with violent crime and are not racially motivated Trump commented Monday the same day that the first batch of Afrikaner refugees arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia that there was a genocide taking place against white farmers that was being ignored by international media The U S criticism of what it calls South Africa s racist anti-white laws appears to refer to South Africa s affirmative action laws that advance opportunities for Black people and a new land expropriation law that gives the establishment power to take private land without compensation Although the cabinet says the land law is not a confiscation tool and refers to unused land that can be redistributed for the inhabitants good several Afrikaner groups say it could allow their land to be seized and redistributed to certain of the country s Black majority Since returning to office in January Trump has issued orders to end diversity equity and inclusion programs across the federal regime The administration has also threatened nongovernmental institutions like colleges and universities with the loss of financial aid unless they do the same Trump also required cabinet contractors and other recipients of federal funds to certify under threat of severe financial penalties that they do not operate DEI programs that violate anti-discrimination laws Afrikaners are descendants of mainly Dutch French and German colonial settlers who first came to South Africa in the th century They were the leaders of the country s previous apartheid system of racial segregation There are around million Afrikaners among South Africa s population of million which is more than Black There are also nearly million other whites of British and other descent Trump has also accused South Africa of taking aggressive positions towards the U S and its allies in its foreign strategy and of being a supporter of Hamas the Palestinian militant group and Iran Trump s executive order cited South Africa s decision to accuse U S ally Israel of genocide in Gaza in an ongoing development at the International Court of Justice as an example of its anti-American stance Israel opened a military offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led militants killed people in an October intrusion into southern Israel The Israeli operation has killed over Palestinians multiple of them women and children according to Gaza s Robustness Ministry which does not say how multiple were combatants Almost have been killed since Israel broke a ceasefire on March the ministry stated Israel has resumed blocking food fuel medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for weeks worsening a humanitarian problem for million Palestinians Ramaphosa has spoken repeatedly of his desire to engage with Trump diplomatically and improve the relationship He says Trump s criticism is based on false information he s being given about South Africa s laws and the attacks on farmers Superville released from Washington