JOHANNESBURG >> South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday slammed a visit by a lobby group for the country’s white minority Afrikaner community to the White House this week as tensions with the Trump administration escalate.

The lobby group AfriForum and its affiliates said on Wednesday a small delegation of its leaders visited Washington this week to meet with White House officials following U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order stopping all aid to the country over what he called a human rights violation against the white minority group.

Trump has falsely claimed that the South African government is seizing land from white farmers through the recently signed Expropriation Act, and also criticized the country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. He has also offered the lobby group refugee status in the U.S.

The group posted pictures of its officials at the White House wearing visitor tags on its social media platforms.

AfriForum and its affiliates claim that the Afrikaner community is under attack in South Africa, citing the deaths of Afrikaner farmers and land policies as a threat to the white minority.

Addressing the media on Thursday, Ramaphosa said South Africa was keen on engaging in making a deal with Trump to resolve the ongoing impasse with his administration.

He described the conduct and acts of Solidariteit and AfriForum leaders as contrary to the spirit of nation-building.

“That is not a nation-building process of running around the world to try and have your problems solved, you are just sowing divisions,” Ramaphosa told reporters.

“We should stop running to other countries; we should discuss our own problems here and find solutions. That in many ways confirms our sovereignty,” he said.

The meetings initiated by the lobby group have occurred amid reports that South African diplomats have had difficulty securing an audience with the Trump administration.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in South Africa, and this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent skipped the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.

Political formations and opposition parties in South Africa have publicly condemned the AfriForum and Solidarity, calling their behavior reckless and a source of lies that compromise the country.

Some have lambasted AfriForum for approaching the U.S. saying it was oblivious to the diplomatic storm they have created through a disinformation campaign.