International

S*ITHOLE ROW: South Africa takes protest to US embassy as Trump insists he’s not racist

Published

6 years ago

January 15, 2018

The “shithole” remarks by President Donald Trump which has sparked widespread condemnation has forced the government of South Africa to protest to the U.S. embassy in Pretoria.

Reacting to Trump’s controversial comments that some immigrants from Africa and Haiti come from “shithole” countries, South Africa’s foreign ministry called the remarks “crude and offensive”.

“Relations between South Africa and the United States, and between the rest of Africa and the United States, must be based on mutual respect and understanding,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

South Africa’s foreign ministry said it would ask the second-in-charge of the U.S. embassy to explain Trump’s comments on Monday.

Meanwhile, Trump insisted on Sunday that “I‘m not a racist” in response to reports that he had described immigrants from Haiti and African countries as coming from “shithole countries.”

Trump also said he was “ready, willing and able” to reach a deal to protect illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children from being deported but that he did not believe Democrats wanted an agreement. He tweeted earlier on Sunday that the existing programme would “probably” be discontinued.

The US President has been widely condemned by many African countries and by international rights organisations for the comments. Botswana’s foreign ministry earlier summoned the U.S. ambassador in protest.

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