Snags in Trump's refuge offer

EXPERTS: IT TAKES YEARS, REQUIRES EXTENSIVE DOCUMENTATION, PROOF OF PERSECUTION

- Brian Sokutu

U.S. President Donald Trump's offer of refugee status to Afrikaners, after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the Expropriation Bill, will not happen overnight, and hopeful emigrants could wait for years, according to experts.

In what has led to a major diplomatic standoff between South Africa and the U.S., Trump has signed an executive order stopping all aid to South Africa, decrying "government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation" and accusing SA of a "shocking disregard of its citizens' rights".

The latest move worsening SA-U.S. relations is a letter written to Trump by four conservative Republican congressmen labeling the South African government "an ethnonationalist gangster regime", citing SA's genocide case against Israel, heard by the International Court of Justice.

Trump's original executive order referred to ethnic Afrikaners as being welcome as refugees in a state-facilitated program, confirmed by the U.S. mission in SA. However, a fact sheet issued by the U.S. embassy and consulates in SA did not limit the ramifications of the executive order to ethnic Afrikaners.

The refugee status offer would, according to the U.S.'s diplomatic mission in Pretoria, include all "disfavored minorities" and refers to all "settler groups" as qualifying.