President Donald Trump claimed there may be an ongoing “genocide” towards white farmers in South Africa throughout a tense assembly with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa within the Oval Workplace on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa, main political events in South Africa and a South African choose, nonetheless, have denied the existence of a white genocide within the nation.
Elon Musk, a South African native and a high adviser to Trump, was current for Ramaphosa’s go to to the White Home. He has additionally beforehand voiced Trump’s allegations that white South Africans are fleeing the nation on account of “violence and racist legal guidelines.”
President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa within the Oval Workplace of the White Home, Could 21, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
In February 2025, a South African court docket dominated that claims of white genocide have been unfounded, calling them “not actual” and “clearly imagined.”
The ruling got here after a rich benefactor within the nation wished to donate $2.1 million to the white supremacist group Boerelegioen, which was denied by the court docket.
Whereas claims of a white genocide have been disallowed by the court docket, it’s true that there’s a drawback with farmers being murdered in South Africa.
These murders are brutal, and the general homicide charge in South Africa is excessive, with 45 murders per 100,000 folks, in accordance with knowledge collected in 2023, however there is no such thing as a indication that these murders are race-driven.
South African crime statistics don’t differentiate between the races of victims, and there’s no particular class for farm murders.
Throughout the Oval Workplace assembly with Trump, Ramaphosa stated, “There’s criminality in our nation. Individuals who do get killed, sadly, by way of legal exercise aren’t solely white folks, majority of them are Black folks.”
Elon Musk attends a Cupboard assembly within the Cupboard Room of the White Home in Washington, April 30, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP through Getty Photos
South Africa’s Presidential Spokesperson Vincent Magwenya informed ABC Information there may be “no proof” to assist the claims of genocide and alleged that the US’ international intelligence would reiterate that.
“There isn’t a proof of what’s being claimed right here. The U.S. has very subtle intelligence gathering mechanism. I can inform you now, in case your intelligence group have been prepared to come back out and converse, they’ll inform you that what’s being propagated right here is totally false,” Magwenya stated.
The White Home launched a press release after the assembly titled “President Trump is Proper About What’s Occurring in South Africa,” doubling down on the administration’s unfounded claims of genocide taking place within the nation.
The assertion has a litany of press clippings that they are saying defend their place {that a} genocide is going on within the nation, pointing to articles from Fox Information, Breitbart and the BBC. Most of the clippings within the launch consult with particular person acts or threats of violence.
Amid Trump and Musk’s continued claims of genocide, dozens of Afrikaner refugees arrived within the U.S. final week after having their purposes fast-tracked underneath an government order issued by Trump in February titled “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa.”
The order contends the South African authorities handed a legislation permitting it to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property with out compensation” in a “stunning disregard of its residents’ rights.”
It instructs that the U.S. won’t present assist or help to the nation, and that the U.S. will “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees.”
Trump has been criticized for prioritizing Afrikaners whereas transferring to limit immigration from elsewhere, together with from Afghanistan, Venezuela and Haiti.
