Trump Ambushes SA Leader with Claims of Afrikaner Persecution

A meeting intended to ease tensions between the US and South Africa took an unexpected turn when President Donald Trump surprised his counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, with claims that white farmers in South Africa were being killed and “persecuted.” The claims, which have been widely discredited, were made during a live news conference at the White House.

Trump played a video showing an exhibit of several crosses lining a road, claiming they were burial sites for murdered white farmers. However, the crosses were actually part of a 2020 protest in KwaZulu-Natal province, representing farmers killed over the years, not actual graves. Ramaphosa remained calm, responding that the video’s content did not reflect government policy. “What you saw – the speeches that were made… that is not government policy. We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves,” he said. “Our government policy is completely against what he [Julius Malema] was saying even in the parliament and they are a small minority party, which is allowed to exist according to our constitution.”

The video featured the voice of Julius Malema, a leading South African opposition figure, singing “Shoot the Boer [Afrikaner], Shoot the farmer.” Trump handed Ramaphosa print-outs of stories of white people being attacked in South Africa, saying he would seek an “explanation” for claims of white “genocide” in the country. Ramaphosa pointed out the white members of his delegation, including golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, and South Africa’s richest man, Johann Rupert, saying, “If there was a genocide, these three gentlemen would not be here.”

Trump continued to press the issue, saying, “But you do allow them to take land, and then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer nothing happens to them.” Ramaphosa responded, “No,” and explained that Malema’s party does not have the power to confiscate land from white farmers. A controversial law signed by Ramaphosa earlier this year allows the government to seize privately-owned land without compensation in some circumstances, but the South African government says no land has been seized yet under the act.

Ramaphosa acknowledged that there was “criminality in our country… people who do get killed through criminal activity are not only white people, the majority of them are black people.” Trump, however, seemed to be referencing the idea that white farmers are being targeted, saying, “The farmers are not black. I don’t say that’s good or bad, but the farmers are not black…” According to the latest figures, nearly 10,000 people were murdered in South Africa between October and December 2024, with a dozen killed in farm attacks, including one farmer.

The meeting came days after the arrival of 59 white South Africans in the US, where they were granted refugee status. Ramaphosa had previously described the group as “cowards.” The incident has sparked controversy, with some questioning the validity of the claims of genocide in South Africa. A South African judge had previously dismissed the claims as “clearly imagined” and “not real.” Julius Malema mocked the meeting, saying, “No significant amount of intelligence evidence has been produced about white genocide. We will not agree to compromise our political principles on land expropriation without compensation for political expediency.”