Afrikaners who fled to the U.S. are ‘cowards,’ says South African president

President Trump said that Afrikaner farmers are victims of 'genocide' at home, allegations South African authorities strongly deny, calling them as 'completely false.'

The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, said a group of white Afrikaners who chose to move to the U.S. as part of a resettlement program created by the Trump administration are “cowards,” stating he has no doubt they will return to their home country soon.

The cohort of about 60 Afrikaners, which included babies and children, landed in Washington, D.C. on a private charter jet on Monday after the U.S. government granted them expedited refugee status over claims they were facing racial discrimination on home soil.

Afrikaners were the leaders of the apartheid system of white minority rule that ended in 1994 and are descendants of predominantly Dutch and French settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1700s.

Of the country’s 62 million people, about 2.7 million are Afrikaners, making it South Africa’s largest white group. More than 80 per cent of South Africans are Black, according to The Associated Press.

Afrikaners are one of South Africa’s most economically privileged and culturally integrated minority groups. Many are successful business leaders and some hold government positions.

Their mother tongue, Afrikaans, is also widely spoken and recognized as an official language, while their way of life is reflected in churches and other institutions across the country.

But U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Afrikaner farmers are victims of a “genocide” at home, allegations South African authorities strongly deny, calling them “completely false.”

Nonetheless, the group had their immigration applications fast-tracked in February after Trump announced the relocation program.