United States President Donald Trump made several allegations about an alleged persecution of the white minority of South Africa during a meeting at the Oval Hall on Wednesday (21) with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa tried to counter the statements, but was often interrupted by Trump, who repeated them.
Trump asked the team to exhibit a video composed mainly by clips of inflamed speeches from some South African politicians circulating on social networks.
Understand the allegations:
- 1 . “There is a genocide of white farmers in South Africa”
This theory has been propagated by some groups of white South Africans since the end of Apartheid in 1994. It circulated in global ultra-right chat rooms for at least a decade, with the declared support of Trump ally, South African Elon Musk.
Defenders of the theory point to the murders of white farmers in remote rural areas of the country as proof of a politically orchestrated ethnic cleaning campaign, not common violent crimes.
They accuse the government, led by a black majority of being an accomplice of the murders on farms, either by encouraging them or at least for “overlooking a thick view.” The government vehemently denies.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with an average of 72 per day, in a country of 60 million inhabitants. Most victims are black.
South African police recorded 26,232 murders across the country in 2024, of which 44 were linked to agricultural communities. Of these, eight of the victims were farmers.
The Superior Court of the Western Cape Province has ruled that white genocide allegations were “clearly imaginary and not real” in a case earlier this year, prohibiting donations to a white supremacist group based on these arguments.
- 2 . “The government is expropriating lands of white farmers without compensation, including through violent land seizures, to distribute them to the black South Africans.”
The government has a policy of trying to correct inequalities on land property, a legacy of apartheid and colonialism. But no land has been expropriated, and the government instead tried to encourage white farmers to sell their land voluntarily.
This did not work. About three quarters of private agricultural lands are still in the hands of whites, which represent less than 8% of the population, while 4% belong to black South Africans, representing 80%.
In an effort to resolve this, Ramaphosa sanctioned a law in January allowing the state to expropriate land “in the public interest”, in rare cases, without compensating the owner. The law requires authorities first to try to reach an agreement. It has not yet been used.
- 3 . “The song” Kill The Boer (Farmer) “sung by some black South Africans is an explicit appeal to the murder of Afrikaners, the European ancestry group that makes up most whites and has most of the agricultural lands.”
The song dates back to resistance against apartheid when nationalists Afrikaners controlled the country. In one of the music videos displayed by Trump, the opposition leader, Julius Malema of the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), sings the song.
Three South African courts decided against attempts to classify it as a hate speech, claiming that it is a historical song of liberation, not a literal incitement to violence.
In a statement after the meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa, EFF stated that it was “a song that expresses the desire to destroy the white minority control system about South Africa resources” and “is part of the African inheritance.”
- 4 . Trump showed a music video showing a long row of white crosses on the edge of a highway, which Trump said they were “burial places” for white farmers.
The video was recorded in September 2020 during a protest against farms murders after two people were killed on their property a week earlier.
The crosses did not mark real graves. An organizer told the South African public broadcaster, Sabc, at the time, that the wooden crosses represented farmers who had been killed over the years.
- 5 . The opening scene of the White House video shows malema in the South African parliament announcing that “people will occupy land. We do not need permission of the president.” It also shows another clip of him promising to expropriate properties.
Some lands have been illegally occupied over the years, mainly by millions of invaders who had nowhere to go, although some land seizures have political motivation.
Lands are usually not used and there is no evidence that EFF has orchestrated any land invasion.
This content was originally published in Trump x South Africa: Understand “White Genocide” allegations on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
