AfriForum Hits Back Against Cyril Ramaphosa Calling 49 Afrikaners in the US Cowards

• Lobby group Afriforum has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for his recent comments in which he slammed the 49 Afrikaners who left South Africa
• Ramaphosa spoke at the annual Nampo Harvest Festival in the Free State and called them cowards
• AfriForum's CEO Kallie Kriel accused Ramaphosa of alienating many Afrikaners and said he refuses to condemn calls for violence against Afrikaners

Tebogo Mokwena, a dedicated Briefly News current affairs journalist, contributed coverage of international and local social issues like health, corruption, education, unemployment, labour, service delivery protests and immigration in South Africa during his seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

JOHANNESBURG — The CEO of AfriForum, Kallie Kriel, has called President Cyril Ramaphosa out on 14 May 2025 for calling the 49 Afrikaners who left South Africa for the United States cowards.

Ramaphosa calls 49 Afrikaners cowards

Ramaphosa was speaking on the sides of the Nampo Harvest Festival near Bothaville in the Free State on 13 May. In the clip Kriel posted on his @kalliekriel X account, Ramaphosa says that when one runs away, one is a coward. He said South Africans are resilient and don't run away from the problems the country faces.

Kriel slams Ramaphosa

Kriel said that Ramaphosa alienates many Afrikaners by continually refusing to condemn calls for violence against Afrikaners. He said these included the singing of the Kill the Boer chant, which Economic Freedom Fighters' president Julius Malema sang during a Sharpeville Massacre commemoration rally earlier this year.

Kriel also said that Ramaphosa's signing of the Basic Education Amendment Laws (BELA) and Expropriation Acts, which he calls anti-Afrikaans, are also acts of violence against Afrikaners. The AfriForum leader added that Ramaphosa must take responsibility for being complicit in the fact that Afrikaners want to emigrate.

"AfriForum respects the right of individuals to leave the country, but remains committed to fighting vigorously against the injustices being committed against Afrikaners and minorities in general, so that there can also be a future for Afrikaners and other minorities here at the southern tip of Africa," he said.

Read the X tweet here:

What you need to know about the 49 Afrikaners

• The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Sean Rowe, said the church will not assist the Afrikaners who arrived in the United States to be resettled as refugees
• United States President Donald Trump slammed the media and accused it of not providing coverage for the alleged white genocide
• Controversial poet Ntsiki Mazwai celebrated the departure of the 49 Afrikaners on social media
• Kriel weighed in on the departure of the 49 Afrikaners and said that Afrikaner culture cannot survive anywhere else in the world, including the United States
• Minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, commended the Afrikaners who rejected claims of persecution and called for police to investigate those who make false claims about the country

United States Embassy officially opens Refugee Admissions Program

In a related article, Briefly News reported that the United States' Embassy in South Africa has officially launched its Refugee Admissions Program on 12 May. This came a day after the first group of Afrikaners relocated to the United States of America.

The Embassy announced on its website that the program is open to Afrikaners and minority groups in the country who believe they are experiencing persecution. The application was consistent with the Executive Order Trump signed in February, which granted Afrikaners refugee status.

Source: Briefly News