Cohen's book: ANC blasts 'divisive' Trump over Mandela

South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) has called US President Donald Trump “divisive, misogynistic and disrespectful” in response to reports that he was dismissive about Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president.

Mr Trump said the Nobel Peace Prize winner was “no leader”, according to his former lawyer Michael Cohen.

The allegation comes from Cohen’s new book, Disloyal: A Memoir. The White House says Cohen is lying.

His book also says that Mr

Trump behaves like a mobster and has “a low opinion of all black people”.

In a scathing response, the ANC, which Mandela led from 1991 to 1997, said that “all freedom-loving people of the world are appalled by these insults which come from a person who, himself, is not a model of competent leadership”.

“Trump is [the most] divisive, misogynistic and disrespectful person ever to occupy the office of the president,” it added.

In contrast, Mandela had stood as a unifying leader, who “reached out to the world and sought to bring peace and a just society”, the ANC said.

Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years for his fight against apartheid, negotiated with the whiteminority government to ensure a non-violent transition to democratic rule in 1994.

In 1993, he won the Nobel prize alongside former South African President FW de Klerk, the man he negotiated with, for their efforts in securing a “peaceful termination of the apartheid regime”.