South Africa

More white South Africans arrive in US as new refugee programme begins

A second group of white South Africans has arrived in the United States under a refugee programme announced by the Trump administration, officials and advocacy groups said Monday. Nine people, including families and children, arrived late last week, said Jaco Kleynhans, head of international liaison at the Solidarity Movement, a group representing members of South Africa's white Afrikaner minority. The group travelled on a commercial flight, he said. A spokesperson for the US Embassy said in an email to The Associated Press that refugees continue to arrive in the United States from South Africa on commercial flights as part of the Afrikaner resettlement programme's ongoing operations. An initial group of 59 white South Africans arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on a chartered flight last month under the new programme announced by US President Donald Trump in February. The Trump administration fast-tracked the resettlement of white South Africans after indefinitely

South Africa's Sanlam to become co-promotor at Shriram AMC with 23% stake

Sanlam joins as co-promoter of Shriram AMC, infusing ₹105 crore to boost quantamental investing and product innovation in India

Explained: South Africa's land reforms and why Trump cried 'white genocide'

A meeting on US-South Africa ties turned tense when US President Donald Trump accused South Africa of orchestrating 'white genocide' disguised as land reform

Trump lectures Ramaphosa over 'white genocide' in South Africa, shows clips

While Cyril Ramaphosa sought to reset ties with Washington, Donald Trump played footage alleging white genocide in South Africa and challenged land reform policy

Trump stages another Oval Office ambush, lecturing South Africa's Ramaphosa

Trump has objected to a land bill that Ramaphosa signed late last year that will make it easier for the government to expropriate private property if it's in the public interest

Trump confronts South African president over killing of white farmers

The South African leader had sought to use the meeting to set the record straight and salvage his country's relationship with the United States

Trump hosts Ramaphosa as South African leader seeks to mend US ties

President Donald Trump is hosting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for White House talks Wednesday at a moment when relations between the two countries are at a nadir, with Trump laying into South African officials on widely rejected charges of allowing a genocide against minority white farmers. South African officials have strongly pushed back against Trump's accusation and Ramaphosa sought the meeting to set the record straight and salvage his country's relationship with the United States. The bilateral relationship is at its lowest point since South Africa enforced its apartheid system of racial segregation, which ended in 1994. Ramaphosa was greeted by Trump as he arrived at the White House shortly after noon for Oval Office talks and lunch with Trump. "The president is a truly respected man in many, many circles," Trump said of the South African president at the start of the Oval Office meeting. "And in some circles he's considered a little controversial. Ramaphosa said

South Africa's leader aims to salvage ties with Trump in White House visit

US President Donald Trump will host South Africa's leader at the White House on Wednesday for a meeting that might be tense after Trump accused the country's government of being racist against white people and allowing a genocide to take place against minority white farmers. South Africa has strongly rejected the allegations and President Cyril Ramaphosa pushed for the meeting with Trump in an attempt to salvage his country's relationship with the United States, which is at its lowest point since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994. Trump has launched a series of accusations at South Africa's Black-led government, including that it is seizing land from white farmers, enforcing anti-white policies and pursuing an anti-American foreign policy by supporting Iran and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Ramaphosa said he hopes to correct what he calls damaging mischaracterisations during the meeting, which is Trump's first with an African leader at the White .

Trump alleges 'genocide' in South Africa, even Afrikaner farmers scoff

Days before South Africa's president meets with U.S President Donald Trump at the White House this week, Afrikaner farmers at the center of an extraordinary new U.S refugee policy roamed a memorial to farm attacks in their country's agricultural heartland, some touching the names of the dead both Black and white. Here in Bothaville, where thousands of farmers gathered for a lively agricultural fair with everything from grains to guns on display, even some conservative white Afrikaner groups debunked the Trump administration's genocide and land seizure claims that led it to cut all financial aid to South Africa. The bustling scene was business as usual, with milkshakes and burgers and tow-headed children pulled in wagons. The late President Nelson Mandela South Africa's first Black leader stood in Bothaville over a quarter-century ago and acknowledged the increasing violent attacks on farmers in the first years following the decades-long racial system of apartheid. But the complex

Grok's focus on South Africa's racial politics 'unauthorised': Musk's xAI

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company said an unauthorised modification to its chatbot Grok was the reason why it kept talking about South African racial politics and the subject of white genocide on social media this week. An employee at xAI made a change that directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, which violated xAI's internal policies and core values, the company said in an explanation posted late Thursday that promised reforms. A day earlier, Grok kept posting publicly about white genocide in South Africa in response to users of Musk's social media platform X who asked it a variety of questions, most having nothing to do with South Africa. One exchange was about streaming service Max reviving the HBO name. Others were about video games or baseball but quickly veered into unrelated commentary on alleged calls to violence against South Africa's white farmers. It was echoing views shared by Musk, who was born in South Africa and frequently opines o

South African President Ramaphosa to visit US next week to meet Trump

President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are scheduled to meet at the White House next week following allegations by Trump and denied by South Africa that genocide is being committed against white farmers in the majority Black country. The meeting, announced Wednesday by the South African government and set for May 21, also comes after the US welcomed 59 white South Africans as refugees this Monday, the start of what the Trump administration said 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 allegations and says whites in the majority Black country are not being singled out for persecution. Ramaphosa's office said he will be in the US 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 said. Th

Trump administration welcomes 49 white South Africans as refugees

The Trump administration on Monday welcomed a small group of white South Africans as refugees, saying they face discrimination and violence at home, which the country's government strongly denies. The decision to admit the 49 people also has raised questions from refugee advocates about why the group should be admitted when the Trump administration has suspended efforts to resettle people who are fleeing war and persecution and have gone through years of vetting before coming to the US. The group from South Africa, including children holding small American flags, arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on a private charter plane and was greeted by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar. I want you all to know that you are really welcome here and that we respect what you have had to deal with these last few years," Landau told the group in a hangar at the airport, many of them holding U.S. flags. "We respect t

Varun Beverages ready to bottle in gains on robust volume growth

The organic volume growth was 15.5 per cent Y-o-Y apart from the consolidation of South Africa & DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)

After Musk's criticism, South Africa paves way for Starlink's entry

South African official is paving the way for Starlink, and other similar providers, to operate in the country through an alternative to the requirement of Black ownership

South Africa eyes more trade with India, China amid sweeping US tariffs

South Africa is looking at expanding its trade with India and China as it faces the prospect of a 30 per cent tariff imposed on it by US President Donald Trump, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said on Monday. The geopolitics at the moment really requires that we should be engaging other nations as well. We know that we are one of the US's biggest trading partners, but there is nothing that says that we should not intensify our trade relations with India, China and other countries, Mashatile told a gathering of business and community leaders. He was speaking at the inaugural breakfast event hosted by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, named after the late Indian-origin freedom activist who served one less year than the 27 of Nelson Mandela as a political prisoner of the minority white apartheid government. Mashatile also commented on South Africa's G20 presidency this year as an opportunity to benefit the entire continent. Solidarity for us is very important. We should use the G20 to ma

India third most dangerous country to drive, Norway safest: Report

South Africa has been named the world's most dangerous country to drive in the annual report put together by a US-based driver training company based on research in 53 countries. India, at 49th place, was listed among the bottom five with the US ranking 51, making it the third most dangerous country to drive, according to Zutobi.com, the international driver's education company with courses in multiple countries. For the fourth year in a row, Norway is the safest country in the world for driving, while South Africa maintained its last position in the list for the second consecutive year. The Zutobi statement said it analysed countries based on indicators including motorway speed limits, blood alcohol concentration limits for drivers and road traffic death rates, to determine the world's safest and most dangerous countries to drive. The average number of estimated road traffic deaths per 1,00,000 across all countries has decreased since the previous year from 8.9 to 6.3, while there

South Africa's Prez denies 'white persecution' amid Musk's genocide claim

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday the claim that white people are being persecuted in his country is a completely false narrative. It was his latest attempt to push back against allegations made by US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and some white minority groups in South Africa. South African-born Musk, who has regularly accused South Africa's Black-led government of being anti-white, repeated a claim this weekend in a social media post that some of the country's political figures are actively promoting white genocide." Ramaphosa said in his weekly message to the nation that South Africans should not allow events beyond our shores to divide us or turn us against each other. In particular, we should challenge the completely false narrative that our country is a place in which people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution. Ramaphosa did not mention names, but his denial was a reference to the allegations by Trump and others that South Af

South African Tourism sees India as top APAC mkt for international arrivals

This comes after 75,541 Indian tourists visited South Africa last year, with 63 per cent from Mumbai

Expulsion of S African envoy by US just hiccup in relations: Prez Ramaphosa

The arbitrary expulsion of South Africa's Ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool on Friday is "just a hiccup" in the relations between the two countries, President Cyril Ramaphosa said as the controversy around the issue raged over the weekend. Ramaphosa was speaking informally to journalists on Monday afternoon for the first time since US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Rasool "persona non grata" in a post on the social media platform X on Friday. This was after Rasool had participated in a discussion hosted earlier on Friday by the South African NGO Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection in which Rasool made comments which angered Rubio enough to call for his repatriation even before any formal diplomatic channels were followed. In his post on Friday, Rubio referred to Rasool as a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. "South Africa's ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country," Rubio added. In his academic address

Trump admin says South African ambassador has to leave US by Friday

After Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was no longer welcome in the US and posted his decision Friday on social media