International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola says if the issue of Afrikaners comes up during President Cyril Ramaphosa and the United States (US) President Donald Trump’s meeting, they will produce evidence that white Afrikaners are not being persecuted in South Africa.

Lamola and other ministers are accompanying Ramaphosa to the US to meet with Trump to mend relations between the two countries.

He says the country has a Constitution that recognises everyone who resides within the borders of South Africa.

Lamola says, ” There’s no evidence to back such. Our stats are there, evidence-based in terms of the police statistics. There is no law in South Africa that is specifically persecuting or targeting white Afrikaners, but there is a constitutional imperative that is there for transformation in the country, which is in the interest of the whole nation. That is the Constitutional imperative that is in the Preamble. That I in the various laws of our country.”

Lamola says Ramaphosa is aware of the task ahead. “The President is aware of that and is ready. For us, it’s about the reset of the strategic relationship between the two countries, which is very important. It’s our second biggest trading partner. We are the number one trading partner on the continent. So there is a need for us to reset relations.”

VIDEO: Ramaphosa in US to meet Trump: