President Donald Trump's administration will send the first group of 49 South Africans who have been granted refugee status to the United States.

They boarded a flight from Johannesburg on Sunday, which will land in Washington, D.C. later Monday.

This is after a weekend of speculation about the South African government criticism, which they call the U.S. resettlement plan “political motivation.”

In the executive order in February, President Trump said the Afrikaans were victims of “racism” and relations between South Africa and the United States have been tense for months.

The United States criticized South Africa's domestic policy, accusing the government of grabbing land from white farmers without any compensation - Southern African countries say it has not happened yet.

Supreme Trump's adviser, Elon Musk, born in South Africa, had previously said there was a "white genocide" in South Africa and accused the government of passing a "racist ownership law."

The claim of white genocide has been widely discredited.

The South African Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that accusing the government of discrimination against white minorities in the country was “unfounded” and that the U.S. resettlement plan was an attempt to undermine the country’s “constitutional democracy.”

The statement added that the country “relatively” stopped discrimination in light of the history of racial oppression under apartheid leadership.

In the United States, President Trump’s responsibility to appoint his administration has laid out plans that could reset the U.S. government, which has potentially relocated a group of most Dutch descent, a period of bilateral tension.

In March, South Africa's ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, was fired after accusing President Trump of using "white victims as dog whistles", leading the United States to accuse Mr. Rasool of "racial bait".

The United States also criticized South Africa's "positive" position on Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which Pretoria accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of genocide against the Gaza people - a claim that the Israelis strongly rejected.

The current white South African refugee group consists of 49 people, expected to land in Washington, D.C. late Monday before continuing to Texas.

President Trump's openness to accepting Dutch refugees in South Africa is because the United States has launched a wider crackdown on immigrants and asylum seekers from other countries.