Police Minister Senzo Mchunu debunks Trump's ‘white genocide' claims in quarterly crime report
South Africa's new police minister, Senzo Mchunu
While the police department does not categorise crimes by race, two of the farm owners who were murdered during the fourth quarter of the 2024-25 financial year were black, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu says.
Presenting the latest quarterly crime statistics, covering the period from January to the end of March, on Friday, Mchunu said there have been six farm attacks this year affecting two farm owners, one farm dweller, two employees and one manager. He said this was a decrease from 12 attacks during the same period last year, in line with a
The quarterly statistics come two days after President Cyril Ramaphosa led a South African delegation to the White House where US President Donald Trump
At Friday's briefing, Mchunu said the term 'genocide' has been forcefully introduced in the conversation about crime with false material circulated in the media and at the White House.
'We have respect for the USA as a country, we have respect for the people in that country and for President Trump, but we have no respect for this genocide story, at all. It is totally unfounded and unsubstantiated,' he said.
He said the pictures of crosses lining a roadside, used by Trump on Wednesday to back his accusations, flowed from a case in KwaZulu-Natal in which a farmer and his wife had been killed in their home in 2020.
'The incident sparked a very strong protest by the farming community. The crosses symbolised killings on farms over years, they are not graves,' Mchunu said.
'Three suspects were arrested and sentenced for their murder and they are in jail. This debunks the claim that nothing gets done when crime is committed.'
Mchunu also noted police's rescue of an American pastor who was kidnapped in the Eastern Cape in April, with the suspects in that case also apprehended.
'We do not deny that the levels of crime in the country are high; we are very concerned. Crime cuts across all divides. We are currently intensifying the fight against crime and criminals,' he said.
Mchunu said there had been significant decreases in most crime categories during the quarter under review, although gender-based violence continued to be a concern.
Rape incidents increased in both Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, which contributed 19.1% and 19.9%, respectively, to the national total, while the rest of the provinces recorded decreases.
'While we acknowledge that GBV+F [gender-based violence and femicide] affects all genders, women remain disproportionately affected by rape, assault GBH [with grievous bodily harm] and murder,' Mchunu said.
'Our resolve to fight GBV+F is unwavering. To this end, the justice, crime prevention and security cluster [in the cabinet] has launched a 90-day GBV+F blitz, which began on 1 May.'
Only Northern Cape recorded an increase in murders to 12% of the national average while the high-crime provinces such Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, recorded slight dips.
Mchunu said 22 police officers, six who were on duty and 16 who were off duty, were killed during the first quarter of the year, 10 of them in Gauteng.
Since the start of the year, 178 757 suspects have been arrested, said Mchunu, adding that while the
Illegal possession of firearms and ammunition remained one of the police's most pressing issues, with a 2.7% increase and 4 023 cases. Police destroyed 16 049 firearms in February and confiscated 1 641 illegal firearms and 24 288 rounds of ammunition during their Operation Shanela drive.
Gauteng recorded the highest level of
Stock theft fell 8.9% during the quarter, which Mchunu attributed to a meeting in the Free State attended by farmers from across the country. He highlighted a police operation in the Eastern Cape where 231 cattle worth R2.7 million, 81 sheep worth over R160 000 and 78 goats valued at over R150 000 were rescued in different parts of the province.
He said the National Policing Policy approved by cabinet in May,
Mchunu rejected media reports of rampant land grabs but said that sporadic unlawful land invasions did occur as a result of inequality.
'Land invasions are not government policy but are, by and large, acts of desperation for land by African people who find themselves landless and in need to settle,' he said, adding that land invasions warranted the country's expropriation policy to address the problem in a lawful and orderly manner.
Mchunu said Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso would clarify the issue of land invasions next week.
'I do want to urge the public to exercise caution when consuming and sharing information, especially on social media platforms, where old or recycled news stories are often circulated to create panic,' Mchunu added.
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