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Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi stated on Thursday that government would not allow its decades-long work in the fight against HIV/Aids and TB to collapse because US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw funding from the country.

Motsoaledi was responding to media reports that HIV testing and monitoring across the country had fallen since the US cut aid that funded health workers and clinics. Pregnant women, infants and youth are the most affected, previously unpublished government data shows.

South Africa has the world's highest burden of HIV, with about 8-million people - one in five adults - living with the virus. The US was funding 17% of the country's HIV budget until Trump announced the withdrawal of aid early this year.

Data from the National Health Laboratory Service showed that viral load testing had fallen by up to 21% among key groups in the last two months.

Motsoaledi said government has reduced deaths from HIV/Aids and TB, noting that when it started with the programme it needed R5.3-billion, however, currently government was now spending R46.8-billion, of which R7.9-billion was from United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

This is the money Trump has withdrawn in aid.

"It is inconceivable that out of the R46.8-billion spent by the country on [its] HIV/Aids programme, the withdrawal of R7.9-billion by President Trump will immediately lead to a collapse of the entire programme, we believe it is inconceivable," Motsoaledi stated.

He stressed that government would not allow its "work to collapse".

"If we do so, we [would] have thrown massive investment in time, money and human resources away, and at any rate, we do not want to go back to the period where death was the order of the day," he said.

Briefing the media in Pretoria, Motsoaledi said many might have forgotten the real crisis brought by HIV/Aids, which was the biggest crisis globally, centered in South Africa, around 2010, where death was an everyday occurrence.

"…by that time the maternal mortality driven by this pandemic had reached a staggering 249 women per 100 000 live births, and the number of children born HIV positive was sky high," he pointed out.

In response, the South African government launched the world's biggest HIV counselling, testing and treatment campaign, with Motsoaledi noting that government had placed about 18-million people on antiretrovirals (ARVs) within just 18 months of its programme.

He noted help from the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which helped decrease the cost of ARVs by 51%.

He highlighted that government also launched prevention of mother-to-child transmission, which he said resulted in the number of babies born HIV positive being reduced from 70 000 a year in 2004 to 1 079 in the 2020 financial year.

He said the figure now stood at 643 in the financial year ending March 2025.

He explained that the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS has calculated that to bring an end to Aids as a public health threat to the country, government must reach targets of 95-95-95.

"…meaning 95% of HIV positive people must know their status and 95% of those who are positive should be placed on ARVs and 95% of those who are on treatment should achieve viral support suppression, to stop transmission of the virus to other people," he explained.

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation chairperson Supra Mahumapelo has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to continue his efforts for "healthy and meaningful relations" between South Africa and US.

This after 59 white South Africans arrived in the US on Monday as the first batch of Afrikaners to be granted "refugee status" in by US President Donald Trump on the belief that they have been persecuted and could potentially have their land confiscated.

Mahumapelo said these claims were "unfounded" and had been dismissed out of hand since they were first spread in the US by disgruntled white South Africans.

He expressed shock at the development, saying what was even more concerning was the "fallacious and unfounded" stories on which the refugee status had been granted.

"…it is regrettable that the US still believes this to the extent of granting these Afrikaner South Africans refugee status," he said.

Mahumapelo said it was concerning that this development had occurred while Ramaphosa worked to repair the "damage" caused by "unpatriotic South African Afrikaners", who sought assistance from the US over land and education policies.

He echoed Ramaphosa words that those who had fled were not being persecuted or hounded, but rather they did not want to embrace the changes that were taking place in the country in accordance with the Constitution.

Mahumapelo pointed to the controversial Expropriation Bill signed by Ramaphosa, noting that government had not expropriated any property so far.

The Bill had been met with criticism from some opposition parties and civil society, which led to Trump terminating all United States Agency for International Development aid to South Africa.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has said Statistics South Africa's (StatsSA's) official unemployment rate, released on Tuesday, is more evidence that the Government of National Unity (GNU), which is nearly a year into office, has failed to put in place any practical plan to create jobs and address the unemployment crisis in South Africa.

StatsSA reported that the official unemployment rate stood at 32.9% for the first quarter of this year, compared with the official unemployment rate of 31.9% for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Further, the expanded unemployment figure worsened by 1.2 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 43.1%.

According to the report, the total number of employed persons stands at 16.8-million.

The three industries that employ the most people remain trade with 3.2-million, community and social services with 3.9-million and finance with 3-million.

"…however, this quarter has seen a net job loss of 291 000. Major declines were recorded in trade down by 194 000, construction down by 119 000, and private households down by 68 000. This sharp drop in employment is a clear sign of an economy with no prospects of meaningful growth, trapped in a cycle of informalisation and casual labour that denies our people dignity and security," said the EFF.

The party does not believe the GNU has a credible plan to turn the situation around.

It described the GNU as a coalition of "austerity, privatisation, and cowardice" and said those party leaders agreed on a Budget that deepens cuts to social infrastructure, does not support industrialisation, and offers no real intervention to grow the economy or create decent jobs.

"It is a neoliberal pact with capital, not a contract with the people," the EFF said.

Young people continue to face the worst of unemployment, 4.9-million young South Africans aged 15 to 34 are unemployed, and 45.1% of youth in this age group are not in employment, education, or training (NEET).

Among the 15- to 24-year-olds, the NEET rate now stands at 37.1%, up from 31.1% in 2018.

The EFF said there was also a worrying increase in graduate unemployment, which it said had risen to 11.7%, showing that even education no longer guarantees opportunity.

"The EFF maintains that unemployment in South Africa remains racial in character. Black Africans bear the heaviest burden, with an expanded unemployment rate of 46.3%, far above the national average of 43.1%," the EFF said.

The party said this reflected a deeply unequal economy that continued to exclude the black majority from full participation.

The party also expressed concerns with women continuing to suffer structural exclusion and exploitation.

"Black African women have the highest unemployment rates, with over 39% out of work. They are the backbone of South Africa's economy - propping up underpaid sectors such as domestic work, retail, and care work - yet they remain the most disrespected and most disregarded. This systemic oppression feeds social ills, including gender-based violence, poverty, and the broader collapse of family and moral structures," the EFF said.

The EFF highlighted that the situation has now worsened compared to when President Cyril Ramaphosa was first elected as President in 2018.

"Then, the number of employed persons was 16.5-million - 300 000 fewer than today, despite the population growing by over 3.5-million. The unemployment rate in 2018 was 27.1%, official and 37.0% expanded, compared to today's 32.9% and 43.1%, respectively. In Quarter 4 of 2018, there were 6.1-million unemployed persons, compared to 8.2-million today - an increase of over 2-million jobless people in six years," the party said.

Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for insulting Afrikaner refugees by calling them "cowards", emphasising that Ramaphosa should take responsibility for his "own complicity in the exodus and planned emigration of Afrikaners to the US and the rest of the world".

US President Donald Trump's administration on Monday welcomed 59 white South Africans, after he granted them refugee status in the US.

During a visit to the NAMPO agricultural industry show in the Free State on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said the decision of the South Africans to move to US as refugees was cowardly, and he expected they would soon return.

Ramaphosa further said those who wanted to leave were not happy with efforts to address the inequities of the apartheid past.

He said South Africans were resilient and did not run away from their problems.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said Ramaphosa's decisions and actions were "causing serious alienation among many Afrikaners".

"Refugees don't run away; they are chased away - and that is exactly what Ramaphosa, and his government are doing. By further insulting Afrikaners and continuing to ignore issues that affect Afrikaners, Ramaphosa is only digging the gulf of alienation even deeper," said Kriel.

He said AfriForum respected the right of people to leave the country but remained committed to the fight against the "injustices" committed against Afrikaners and other minorities in general, to also ensure a future for Afrikaners and other minorities in South Africa.

Kriel said Ramaphosa's continued refusal to condemn calls for violence against Afrikaners, such as the "Kill the Boer" chant, contributed to this alleged alienation.

"Additionally, the President's approval of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, an anti-Afrikaans piece of legislation, and the Expropriation Act, along with the Ramaphosa government's use of discriminatory racial legislation and draconian racial regulations, directly contribute to the alienation of Afrikaners and other minority communities in the country," he said.

He stressed that AfriForum, and most Afrikaners, were here to stay.

The Trump administration welcomed on Monday 59 white South Africans it granted refugee status in the US, having deemed them victims of racial discrimination, while drawing criticism from Democrats and stirring confusion in South Africa.

US President Donald Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world but in February offered to resettle Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, saying they faced discrimination.

Asked on Monday why white South Africans were being prioritised above the victims of famine and war elsewhere in Africa, Trump said, without providing evidence, that Afrikaners were being killed.

"It's a genocide that's taking place," Trump told reporters at the White House, going further than he has previously in echoing right-wing tropes about their alleged persecution.

He was not favouring Afrikaners because they are white, Trump said, adding that their race "makes no difference to me."

South Africa maintains there is no evidence of persecution and that claims of a "white genocide" in the country, echoed by Trump's white South African-born ally Elon Musk, have not been backed up by evidence.

The Episcopal Church announced on Monday that it would no longer work with the federal government on refugees after it was asked to help settle the Afrikaners.

"It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years," Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe wrote in a letter to the church's followers.

US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the most senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the move "baffling."

"The decision by this administration to put one group at the front of the line is clearly politically motivated and an effort to rewrite history," she said in a statement on Monday.

LAND LAW

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greeted the first 59 Afrikaners to arrive in a hangar at Washington's Dulles airport. He compared their journey to that of his own father, a Jew from Austria who fled Europe in the 1930s, first to South America and then to the United States.

Landau did not repeat Trump's claims of killings, but said many of the South Africans were farming families who had worked land for generations but now faced the threat of that land being expropriated, as well as threats of violence.

Trump's February order on resettling Afrikaners cited a land law introduced by South Africa this year that aims to make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, which has caused concern among some white South Africans although no land has been seized.

Charl Kleinhaus, 46, who arrived on Monday and was set to be resettled in Buffalo, New York, with his daughter, son and grandson, said his life was threatened and people tried to claim his property as their own. Reuters was unable to verify his account.

"We never expected this land expropriation thing to go so far," he told Reuters.

Some of the Afrikaners were heading to Democratic-leaning Minnesota, which has a reputation for welcoming refugees, while others planned to go to Republican-led states such as Idaho and Alabama, sources told Reuters.

The US would welcome more Afrikaner refugees in the coming months, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

'WRONG END OF THE STICK'?

Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has cut all US financial assistance to South Africa, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington's ally Israel.

Speaking at a conference in Ivory Coast, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the white Afrikaners had ostensibly left because they were opposed to policies aimed at addressing racial inequality persisting since apartheid, or white minority, rule ended three decades ago.

"We think that the American government ...

The African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday rebuffed the US's decision to grant refugee status to individuals that the party says "self-identify" as Afrikaners, describing them as "instigators of a falsehood" and in search of impunity from transformation, not safety.

"…they flee not from persecution, but from justice, equality and accountability for historic privilege," said ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri.

The Trump administration on Monday welcomed 59 white South Africans, after US President Donald Trump granted them refugee status in the US.

Bhengu-Motsiri clarified that there were no Afrikaner refugees in South Africa.

"No section of our society is hounded, persecuted or subject to ethnic victimisation. These claims are a fabrication, and a cowardly political construct designed to delegitimise our democracy and insult the sacrifices made by generations who fought for freedom," she stated.

She pointed to the Freedom Charter, highlighting that in commemoration of the seventieth anniversary, citizens must recall the "enduring truth" that South Africa belonged to all who live in it, black and white.

"…this is further enshrined in our Constitution, which affirms equality, dignity and non-racialism as the bedrock of our national life," she explained.

She noted that the misuse of refugee protections to shield right-wing, anti-transformation elements was a violation of the spirit and letter of international law.

She highlighted that millions around the world faced real persecution and they were the ones deserving of sanctuary, not those "offended" by a democratic society that was working to redress past injustice.

The ANC called on all South Africans to unite in defence of the truth, constitutionalism and national sovereignty.

"Ours is not a broken or failing State, it is a people's democracy advancing against the tides of distortion and destructive, divisive narratives," said Bhengu-Motsiri.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will this week attend the Africa CEO Forum in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, to showcase South Africa's potential as a premier investment and trade destination.

Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly letter to the nation that government was also supporting South African firms as they sought new opportunities on the continent.

The Africa CEO Forum is an annual event that brings together almost 3 000 CEOs, heads of State and investors to explore potential business leads, partnerships and opportunities.

The event will take place from Monday until Wednesday.

Ramaphosa highlighted that South Africa's participation in this Forum underscored the country's commitment to play a leading role in Africa's economic integration, noting that the event was taking place during disruption in the global economy, owing to geopolitical tension, trade wars and conflicts that were affecting key shipping corridors.

"What this means is that South African businesses are actively exploring new market opportunities. South African investments in other African countries have a long history. These investments have grown and diversified from mining into sectors such as construction, IT and telecommunications, healthcare, financial services, retail and the green economy," he said.

Ramaphosa's working visit to Côte d'Ivoire follows his State Visit in December 2021.

He is joined by Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe and Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

Ramaphosa pointed out that since 1994, government had implemented several initiatives to promote trade and investment elsewhere on the continent, including partnerships and trade agreements.

"We are witnessing the benefits of these efforts. The latest trade statistics published by the South African Revenue Service point to increased exports to countries in the region, like Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia, as well as with the rest of Africa," he said.

Rampahosa said the South African government was determined to use the longstanding presence of local companies on the continent to expand trade and investment with fellow African nations.

He also pointed to the upheavals in the global economy, which he said presented an opportunity for strategic, Africa-focused trade and investment policy.

"South African business must be at the forefront of the transformation of African industry. As government, we are committed to provide the necessary supportive policy and regulatory frameworks.

"By equal measure we will be making the case for African firms to invest in South Africa. We have a diverse economy with highly developed industrial sectors. We have established industries in mining, agriculture, manufacturing, financial and professional services, IT and others," he stated.

He further noted the ranking by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, which lists South Africa as a leader in digital innovation on the continent and one of the leading incubators of tech startups.

The structural reform process which began under the sixth administration and continued under the Government of National Unity, aimed to position South Africa as a premier trade and investment destination, Ramaphosa said.

Government was looking to make the economy more competitive by reducing the cost of doing business, improving infrastructure and investing in skills development, he assured.

"We are reforming our visa regime to attract skills and promote tourism in South Africa. We are using our G20 Presidency to amplify the continent's voice and focus global attention on Africa's economic potential. We are prioritising inclusive global cooperation, a just and equitable economic recovery and promoting long-term environmental resilience," said Ramaphosa.

Dozens of White Afrikaners are scheduled to arrive in the US on Monday, the first beneficiaries of a controversial resettlement programme instigated by President Donald Trump that his South African counterpart says is misguided.

Tensions between Washington and Pretoria have been running high since Trump began his second term in January, accused the South African authorities of seizing land from White Afrikaners and offered to resettle them as refugees in the US. Elon Musk, the president's Pretoria-born billionaire backer, has meanwhile spread a conspiracy theory that there is a "genocide" of White people in the country.

There have been no official land seizures in South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994, while police statistics show young Black men bear the brunt of violent crime. About 7% of South Africa's 63-million people are White, and 11% of the population speak Afrikaans as their home language.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who's been trying to mend relations with South Africa's second-biggest trading partner, said he told Trump in a recent conversation that the US had been misinformed about a "fringe group" of Afrikaners who wanted to leave - and that they didn't fit the description of refugees.

"Those people who have fled are not being persecuted. They are not being hounded, they are not being treated badly and they are leaving ostensibly because they don't want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country in accordance with our constitution," Ramaphosa told a panel discussion in Ivory Coast on Monday. "We think that the American government has got the wrong end of the stick here, but we'll continue talking to them."

Other points of contention between the US and South Africa include Pretoria's decision to file a case in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel, a top American ally, of committing a genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and Pretoria's close ties with Iran.

Ramaphosa is planning a working visit to the US, and the Presidency will communicate the details soon, International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola told reporters on Monday.

AfriForum, a conservative White Afrikaans rights group, described the departure of the first "refugees" to the US as a serious indictment against South Africa's government, which it said has refused to condemn calls for violence against Afrikaners, adopted racially discriminatory legislation and condoned land seizures.

"AfriForum and our allies will also intensify our efforts to use every possible mechanism at our disposal, including international pressure, to bring about a change of direction in the country for the benefit of all, including Afrikaners," Kallie Kriel, the group's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The first 49 white South Africans granted refugee status for being deemed victims of racial discrimination under an offer by US President Donald Trump were flying to the US on Monday.

Under Trump, Washington has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world but is prioritising Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers.

Treating white South Africans as refugees fleeing oppression has drawn a mixture of alarm and ridicule by South African authorities, who say the Trump administration has waded into a domestic issue it does not understand.

South African media, too, have shown little sympathy for the asylum seekers, with many keeping them off front pages and calling them "refugees" in quotation marks.

The charter plane carrying the 49 from Johannesburg was due into Washington Dulles airport at around 12:30. People familiar with the matter said the South Africans would participate in a press conference before boarding flights to different US destinations.

Some were heading to Democratic-leaning Minnesota, which has a reputation for welcoming refugees, while others planned to go to Republican-led states such as Idaho and Alabama, sources told Reuters.

South Africa maintains there is no evidence of persecution.

'WRONG END OF THE STICK'?

Speaking at a conference in Ivory Coast, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the white South Africans had ostensibly left because they were opposed to policies aimed at addressing racial inequality persisting since apartheid.

"We think that the American government has got the wrong end of the stick here, but we'll continue talking to them," he said.

People interviewed by Reuters in Cape Town on Monday said they bore no ill will to their departing compatriots but doubted they would find life much better in the US.

"I don't believe in running away from problems, you know, we've got a lovely country, and we make it work," said Robert Skeen, a 47-year-old Afrikaner selling boerewors rolls, the South African equivalent of a hot dog.

"We're really blessed in South Africa, ... with all the drama going on, it's still one of the best countries in the world to live in."

Since Nelson Mandela brought democracy into South Africa in the 1994, the once-ruling white minority has retained most of their wealth amassed since colonial times.

Whites still own three-quarters of private land and have about 20 times the wealth of the Black majority, according to international academic journal the Review of Political Economy.

Less than 10% of white South Africans are out of work, compared with more than a third of their Black counterparts.

RIGHT-WING TROPE

Yet the claim that minority white South Africans face discrimination from the Black majority has become an established trope in right-wing online chatrooms, and been echoed by Trump's white South African-born ally Elon Musk.

Three white South Africans who had first-round interviews at the US embassy in Pretoria told Reuters that officials asked questions about their experiences with land disputes, crime and perceived racial discrimination.

Ramaphosa signed a law this year that aims to make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, which has caused concern among some white South Africans although no land has been seized.

Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has cut all US financial assistance to South Africa, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington's ally Israel.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services said on Friday that it was working with the State Department to support the South Africans' resettlement, without giving details about what kind of assistance they would receive.

The spokesperson added that more arrivals were expected in the coming months. The State Department paid for Monday's charter flight, according to someone familiar with the matter.

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) on Friday urged Parliament to consider removing Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Police chairperson Ian Cameron, saying he demonstrated a "clear inability to execute his duties with impartiality and integrity".

This after Cameron publicly referred to the acquittal of eight members of the Presidential Protection Unit as "thugs".

Cameron said on Wednesday he was outraged by the acquittal of Deputy President Paul Mashatile's eight South African Police Service (Saps) VIP Protection Unit officers, after an internal Saps disciplinary process.

The officers were filmed assaulting civilians on the N1 highway in 2023.

Cameron claimed the acquittal of the officers was the "direct result of a failed internal Saps disciplinary system, obstructive union interference, and complicit police leadership".

He further claimed "broader rot" within the Saps disciplinary processes.

"The footage of the assault left no room for doubt, and yet, Saps management signed off on a decision that makes a mockery of justice and public trust. It is increasingly clear that bodyguards assigned to the Deputy President operate as a law unto themselves - emboldened by institutional protection and unchecked by consequence. The acquittal reinforces the perception that these VIP units function with their own rules, shielded from the standards that apply to the rest of society. We cannot allow Saps to become a sanctuary for thugs in uniform," Cameron had said.

Popcru president Thulani Ngwenya strongly condemned what he said were "reckless and inflammatory" remarks by Cameron. He further said Cameron had falsely accused Popcru of blocking legal proceedings and of defending police brutality.

"…these are not only baseless and defamatory but represent a deliberate attempt to delegitimise the role of organised labour in defending the rights of its members. Popcru has never, and will never, condone any form of police abuse. We consistently advocate for accountability, constitutional policing, and community safety rooted in human rights. However, we equally reject trial by media, political opportunism, and the scapegoating of officers before facts are established," he stated.

Ngwenya believes Cameron's comments are a gross misuse of his parliamentary oversight role, saying it undermines the justice system.

"Cameron's behaviour is reckless and unethical, especially as these officers have been cleared from wrongdoing through due process. Who is he to undermine proper labour processes, or question the findings of the courts? His statements are deeply disturbing, and we will not stand quietly by and allow his behaviour to go unchecked," Ngwenya said.

Popcru called on the Parliamentary Ethics Committee to investigate Cameron's remarks and take disciplinary action, while also calling for an immediate investigation by Parliament's Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interest into Cameron's conduct.

The union expressed concerns with Cameron's remarks, saying it reflected political bias and a dangerous posture of incitement.

"…his comments have the potential to agitate communities against police officers, placing lives at risk and undermining the rule of law," Ngwenya said.