PRETORIA - President Cyril Ramaphosa has hit back at Donald Trump after the US leader signed an executive order cutting off foreign assistance to South Africa and offering refugee statues to White Afrikaners, citing race-based discrimination.

South Africa’s government has rejected claims in the order, titled “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa”. 

In it, Trump accuses South Africa of seizing “ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation under the recently adopted Expropriation Act. 

This comes after civil society group AfriForum’s claims of a white genocide in South Africa in reference to the Expropriation Act. 

While AfriForum says it’s staying put in South Africa, its leaders insist Trump’s actions are a direct result of Ramaphosa and his government’s irresponsible actions and policies. 

Professor Christopher Isike of the African Politics and International Relations Department at the University of Pretoria spoke to eNCA.