Deputy President Paul Mashatile said United States President Donald Trump has been fed with false information about ‘genocide of white Afrikaners’ in the country and invited him to see the truth for himself.
“When the President (referring to Cyril Ramaphosa) decides to visit the US, he will invite President Trump so that he can see our beautiful country,” Mashatile said while speaking to the media at the sidelines of the Africa Travel Indaba in KwaZulu-Natal, on Tuesday.
“There’s no genocide here. We are beautiful, happy people. Black and White working, and living together,” he said with confidence, nodding his head.
“So I hope he will accept the invitation and come because I think he’s been lied to. There’s no genocide.”
News previously reported that Trump has warned he will boycott the G20 Summit in South Africa this November unless the country addresses what he calls a ‘genocide of white Afrikaners.’
Speaking during a press briefing at the White House on Monday, Trump criticised South Africa’s leadership and mainstream media for allegedly ignoring widespread violence against white farmers.
“South African leadership is coming to see me, I understand, sometime next week, and we are supposed to have a G20 meeting there or something. I don’t know how we can go unless that situation is taken care of,” Trump said.
His remarks came as his administration welcomed 49 Afrikaners who had fled South Africa, seeking refugee status in the US.
It is claimed that white people are being brutally murdered in the country.
With calm and sharp words, Trump said: “White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa, and the newspapers and the media and television media don’t even talk about it.
“If it were the other way around, they’d talk about it; that would be the only story they’d talk about. And I don’t care who they are. I don’t care about their race or their colour. I don’t care about their height, their weight. I don’t care about anything. I just know that what’s happening is terrible. I have people who live in South Africa, they say it’s a terrible situation taking place.”
Trump stated that they have even extended citizenship to those people who have escaped from that violence and come here.
This is despite President Cyril Ramaphosa saying he will meet with Trump to iron out the tensions.
Addressing the Africa CEO Forum, Ramaphosa said he told Trump over a phone call that claims that white people are murdered in South Africa was not true.
The US is scheduled to assume the presidency of the G20 from South Africa at the end of the year.
However, members of former President Trump’s cabinet have been boycotting official meetings, citing concerns raised by Trump regarding alleged issues within South Africa, including land expropriation and reported violence against white South Africans.
All G20 leaders, including Trump, have been formally invited to the summit.
Politics
