Afrikaners' relocation: South Africa rejects Trump's 'persecution' claims

The White South Africans who have accepted resettlement in the United States did not face "any form of persecution" in South Africa, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

It came hours after a first group of 49 White South Africans flew out of Johannesburg following US President Donald Trump's offer to grant refugee status to the Afrikaners.

Mainly descendants of Dutch settlers, Trump has said Afrikaners face "racial discrimination" in South Africa, heightening tensions between the two countries.

"They can't provide any proof of any persecution because there is not any form of persecution to White South Africans or to Afrikaners South Africans," Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told reporters.

Their claims that White farmers are targeted for murder -- despite official data that most victims of killings are young Black men in urban areas -- have morphed into a myth, also amplified by Trump.

Apartheid injustice

The US president, whose tycoon ally Elon Musk was born in South Africa, said in February he would prioritise access to a refugee programme "for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination".

"We are glad that a number of organisations, even from the Afrikaner structures, have denounced this so-called persecution," Lamola said.

The 49 left Johannesburg's main airport on a chartered flight on Sunday and are due to land in the United States on Monday.

White South Africans, who make up 7.3 percent of the population, generally enjoy a higher standard of living than the Black majority of the country.

Mainly Afrikaner-led governments imposed the race-based apartheid system that denied the Black majority political and economic rights until it was voted out in 1994.