Mr Ramaphosa made the comments while discussing the so-called “fringe groups” lobbying the US about South African issues. It comes after Trump railed against the heated situation in South Africa. Mr Ramaphosa’s administration plans to seize land from white farmers without giving them compensation.
Trump has offered an outspoken rebuke in response to the news South African lawmakers had approved changes to the country’s constitution to make the redistributions legal.
But when he pledged to investigate large-scale killings of white farmers in South Africa and violent takeovers of land, Pretoria fired back saying he was “ill-informed”.
Mr Ramaphosa hit back at Trump on Thursday in an interview with broadcaster CNN, saying of his overseas critics: “In the main, most of them are racists”.
He said: “They are finding people who get some resonance with what they are saying, and these people are ill-informed about what is happening here.
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“Just as President Trump was ill-informed about the messages that they are beaming out.
“Those people overseas that are taken in by this message of whites in South Africa being under threat, they are looking at South Africa through the lens of black versus white.
“And South Africa has long moved away from that.
“In the main, most of them are racists.”
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The South African leader went on to assert critics of his reforms were “not very positively disposed toward black people” – and was forced to deny there was a “racial war in South Africa”.
He said: “Their voice, a seemingly prominent voice, is because they are talking on race issues and saying there is a racial war.
“There is no racial war in South Africa. White South Africans are working with us to resolve this issue.”
Carrie Schneider, the spokeswoman for the US embassy in Pretoria, released a statement about the redistribution plans.
It read: “Expropriation of land without compensation risks sending South Africa down the wrong path.
“That remains the US position.
“President Ramaphosa has indicated that land reform would be undertaken without damaging the economy.
“While South Africa has the sovereign right to amend its constitution, we believe its decisions should be consistent with the rule of law and preserve the investment climate.”