Afrikaners Arrive in US

Designed to question SA democracy, govt says.

- Brian Sokutu

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel was noncommittal yesterday about whether he supported the Afrikaners taking up an offer by US President Donald Trump to leave South Africa for America as "refugees" to flee from what some claim is a "genocide" aimed at white people and Afrikaners in particular.

Today, the first batch of Afrikaner settlers are expected to land in the US, where they will be living as refugees.

Kriel said he had read about their departure in the media and had "no further information".

He could not give details of the departing Afrikaner group, nor say whether he was distancing himself from those seeking a self-imposed exile.

The US embassy in South Africa is also keeping mum on the matter.

According to media reports, the US state department and homeland security were expected to welcome 54 Afrikaners with refugee status in Washington.

Trump suspended the country's entire refugee settlement programme on his first day in office - leaving over 100,000 people from war-torn countries who had been initially approved in the lurch.

But in February, he signed an executive order directing government officials to grant refugee status to Afrikaners.

Trump said in March that any South African farmers and their families seeking to "flee" would have a "rapid pathway" to US citizenship.