The United States must prove its claims that white South Africans are persecuted if it continues to push this charge, President Cyril Ramaphosa's office has said ahead of talks with Donald Trump.
Ramaphosa's meeting with Trump in Washington on Wednesday comes with bilateral relations at an all-time low, with the US repeating unproven claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa to attack the government.
"We need to reset the relationship... but more importantly, iron out issues of concerns that may exist, albeit some of them based on disinformation," presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told 702 radio on Tuesday.
Trump has offered "refuge" to white people from the Afrikaner minority, bringing over a first group of around 50 people on May 12.
If this resettlement programme continues, South Africa "will take exception," Magwenya said.
"As a government, we can't prevent people from leaving but we will express our displeasure at people who leave under false pretences and ... under the guise of things that are not happening in our country," he said.
"It's going to be difficult for the Trump administration to sustain this so-called 'genocide' in South Africa. And the burden of proof is going to ultimately fall on the US to substantiate these claims," he said.
"There's absolutely no way that the Trump administration does not know that what they are propagating is false."
Ramaphosa and a delegation of government officials arrived in Washington on Monday in a bid to reset strained ties with the US.
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South Africans are relocating to the US after President Trump granted them refugee status as victims of what he called a “white genocide”.
Gaza genocide case against Israel
Magwenya questioned if the South Africans who had shown interest in Trump's offer of resettlement even met the criteria of having been persecuted. Some media profiling people in the group have also cast doubt on their stories.
Some right-wing Afrikaner lobby groups have claimed that Afrikaans farmers are being murdered in targeted killings, but authorities say this is unfounded. Most of the victims of South Africa's sky-high murder rate are young Black men in urban areas, according to police figures.
Afrikaners also are protesting at a new education law that they say will undermine education in their Afrikaans mother-tongue.
Ramaphosa will be accompanied at his meeting at the Oval Office on Wednesday by four ministers including John Steenhuisen, who heads the agriculture portfolio and is leader of the pro-business Democratic Alliance, a major party in the government of national unity.
Securing trade ties with the United States was a priority as Ramaphosa is "duty bound to protect livelihoods, to create the jobs that need to be created," Magwenya said.
However, South Africa would not withdraw its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or undo laws meant to empower black South Africans as part of efforts to redress inequalities inherited from apartheid, he said, referencing two of the sticking points in US-SA relations.
Many in group from South Africa — including toddlers and other small children, even one walking barefoot in pajamas — hold small American flags as two officials welcome them in an airport hangar outside Washington DC.
South Africa to offer Musk Starlink deal
South Africa's government plans to offer a workaround of local Black ownership laws for Elon Musk's Starlink internet service to operate in the country, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the discussions.
The offer would come at a "last-minute" meeting planned for Tuesday night between South African officials and Musk or his representatives, Bloomberg said.
Musk, who is South African-born, has previously claimed Starlink was barred from operating in South Africa because he is not Black, an allegation South African officials refuted.
South Africa's telecoms regulator said in March that Starlink had not applied for a licence.
Musk's assertion appeared to be taking a swipe at local Black Economic Empowerment rules, requiring foreign-owned telecommunications licencees to sell 30 percent of the equity in their local subsidiaries to historically disadvantaged groups.
Ramaphosa’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya told Reuters on Monday that the issue of licencing for Starlink would be discussed during the US visit.
