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Indian Express
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘Genocide' of white South Africans? A closer look at Donald Trump's claims
When US President Donald Trump announced this year that members of South Africa's Afrikaner community would be granted refugee status in the United States, his reasoning was blunt: white farmers, he said, were the victims of a 'genocide'. The South African government permitted US officials to process applications within the country and allowed nearly 60 individuals to board a chartered flight to the US. Trump's assertion, earlier made in public statements, was repeated in a confrontational meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House recently. The encounter was made even more high-profile by the presence of Trump's South African-born adviser, Elon Musk, and a swarm of journalists. As described by non-profit South African History Online, Afrikaners are descendants of mostly Dutch (34.8%), German (33.7%) and French (13.2%) settlers who arrived in South Africa in the mid-17th century. Over time, this group — also known as Boers (meaning 'farmers') — developed a unique cultural and linguistic identity rooted in the Afrikaans language, closely related to Dutch. During the apartheid era, which formally began in 1948 under Afrikaner-led governments, this community wielded enormous political and economic power. Apartheid legally enforced racial segregation and systematically oppressed black South Africans. The regime fell in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC), ushering in a democratic era and ending white-minority rule. Today, Afrikaners make up roughly 4 per cent of South Africa's population of over 60 million, numbering more than 2.5 million people. What has Trump claimed? Trump has often repeated a claim popular among far-right groups: that white South African farmers are being 'brutally killed' and 'their land is being confiscated'. He has referred to these killings as part of a 'genocide,' a term not used by any major human rights body, international institution, or domestic political party in South Africa, including those representing the white community. Genocide is a term with specific legal and historical weight, typically referring to the systematic attempt to annihilate a group based on race, ethnicity, religion or nationality. At the White House meeting on Wednesday, Trump ambushed Ramaphosa with videos he claimed showed proof of genocide. One included footage of an opposition politician singing a controversial protest song. Ramaphosa responded that such songs are protected under free expression and that crimes in South Africa affect people of all races. Showing a video of a rural road lined with crosses to Ramaphosa, Trump claimed it was footage of 'burial sites' of over '1,000 white farmers'. However, an analysis of the video by The New York Times found that the footage showed a memorial procession on September 5, 2020, near Newcastle, South Africa. The event, according to a local news website, was for a white farming couple in the area murdered in late August of that year. The crosses were planted in the days ahead of the event and were later removed. The short answer from South African authorities and courts is: no. South Africa does not release crime figures disaggregated by race, but government data for the period between October and December 2024 recorded 6,953 murders. Of those, 12 occurred in farm attacks. Among the dead: one was a farmer, five were farm dwellers, and four were employees. A South African judge in February 2025 dismissed the notion of a white genocide as 'clearly imagined' and 'not real' during an inheritance case involving the white supremacist group Boerelegioen. What is the discourse in South Africa? No major South African political party, including the right-wing Freedom Front Plus or the centrist Democratic Alliance (DA) — both of which draw support from the white community — claims a genocide is occurring. President Ramaphosa has said that such allegations are 'completely false' and suggested that those emigrating are doing so because they are unwilling to embrace the constitutional changes of post-apartheid South Africa. Nonetheless, some Afrikaner groups have voiced concern. In 2025, roughly 70,000 Afrikaners expressed interest in relocating to the US, according to a local business group quoted by BBC. This figure remains a small fraction of the total Afrikaner population. The lobby group Solidarity has published articles encouraging Afrikaners to remain in South Africa, and FF+ leader Corné Mulder recently told parliament: 'We are bound to Africa and will build a future for ourselves and our children here.' What about land reform? Another controversial element cited by Trump is the issue of land ownership. South Africa continues to grapple with its apartheid legacy, in which black South Africans were dispossessed of land. A law signed by Ramaphosa in January this year seeks to address this historic injustice but has been criticised by the DA, who say it undermines property rights. They have pledged to challenge it in court. Musk, too, has waded into the row. He accused South Africa of having 'racist ownership laws' after his company Starlink was unable to operate there. In response, South Africa's telecoms regulator, Icasa, clarified that Starlink never submitted a licence application. Local law requires 30% ownership by historically disadvantaged groups to receive an operating licence — part of broader efforts to redress apartheid-era exclusion. What about the controversial song? At the centre of the cultural row is the chant 'Shoot the Boer,' frequently sung by Julius Malema, leader of the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Afrikaner lobby groups have tried to have it banned, arguing that it incites violence. South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal disagreed, ruling that the lyrics — originating in anti-apartheid struggle — do not amount to hate speech when used in political protest. The court noted that a 'reasonably well-informed person' would not interpret the words literally, but as a provocative form of political expression. So, is there racial discrimination against whites? While many white South Africans remain economically privileged relative to the black majority, some policies aimed at correcting historical imbalances have drawn criticism from within the white community. For instance, the Employment Equity Act sets diversity targets for companies, and certain job postings have at times been reserved for specific racial groups to achieve representation. Critics, including the DA, argue that these laws may marginalise some groups and enable corruption. One recent job ad in the sports ministry reserved posts for Coloured, Asian, and white applicants, prompting backlash. Minister Gayton McKenzie defended it as an attempt to balance departmental demographics. White South Africans, however, still occupy a disproportionate share of top management roles — 62.1% of them, despite comprising only 7.7% of the economically active population, according to South Africa's Commission for Employment Equity.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?
US President Donald Trump has given members of South Africa's Afrikaner community refugee status, alleging that a genocide was taking place in the country. Nearly 60 of them have arrived in the US after being granted asylum. The South African government allowed the US embassy to consider their applications inside the country, and let the group board a chartered flight from the main international airport in Johannesburg - not scenes normally associated with refugees fleeing persecution. South African History Online sums up their identity by pointing out that "the modern Afrikaner is descended mainly from Western Europeans who settled on the southern tip of Africa during the middle of the 17th Century". A mixture of Dutch (34.8%), German (33.7%) and French (13.2%) settlers, they formed a "unique cultural group" which identified itself "completely with African soil", South African History Online noted. Their language, Afrikaans, is quite similar to Dutch. But as they planted their roots in Africa, Afrikaners, as well as other white communities, forced black people to leave their land. Afrikaners are also known as Boers, which actually means farmer, and the group is still closely associated with farming. In 1948, South Africa's Afrikaner-led government introduced apartheid, or apartness, taking racial segregation to a more extreme level. This included laws which banned marriages across racial lines, reserved many skilled and semi-skilled jobs for white people, and forced black people to live in what were called townships and homelands. They were also denied a decent education, with Afrikaner leader Hendrik Verwoerd infamously remarking in the 1950s that "blacks should never be shown the greener pastures of education. They should know their station in life is to be hewers of wood and drawers of water". Afrikaner dominance of South Africa ended in 1994, when black people were allowed to vote for the first time in a nationwide election, bringing Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) to power. Afrikaners currently number more than 2.5 million out of a population of more than 60 million - about 4%. None of South Africa's political parties - including those that represent Afrikaners and the white community in general - have claimed that there is a genocide in South Africa. But such claims have been circulating among right-wing groups for many years and Trump also referred to a genocide during his first term. The claims stem from attacks on white farmers, or misleading information circulated online. In February, a South African judge dismissed the idea of a genocide as "clearly imagined" and "not real", when ruling in an inheritance case involving a wealthy benefactor's donation to white supremacist group Boerelegioen. South Africa does not release crime figures based on race but the latest figures revealed that 6,953 people were murdered in the country between October and December 2024. Of these, 12 were killed in farm attacks. Of the 12, one was a farmer, while five were farm dwellers and four were employees, who are likely to have been black. Defending his decision to give Afrikaners refugee status, Trump said that a "genocide" was taking place in South Africa, white farmers were being "brutally killed" and their "land is being confiscated". Trump said that he was not sure how he could attend the G20 summit of world leaders, due to be held in South Africa later this year, in such an environment. "I don't know how we can go unless that situation's taken care of," he added. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has said it was "completely false" to claim that "people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution". Referring to the first group who have moved to the US, he said: "They are leaving because they don't want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country and our constitution." The government denies that land is being confiscated from farmers, saying that a bill Ramaphosa signed into law in January was aimed at addressing the land dispossession that black people faced during white-minority rule. But the law has been condemned by the Democratic Alliance (DA), Ramaphosa's main coalition partner in government. The DA say it will challenge the law in South Africa's highest court, as it threatens property rights. Trump's close adviser Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has referred to the country's "racist ownership laws", alleging that his satellite internet service provider Starlink was "not allowed to operate in South Africa simply because I'm not black". To operate in South Africa, Starlink needs to obtain network and service licences, which both require 30% ownership by historically disadvantaged groups. This mainly refers to South Africa's majority black population, which was shut out of the economy during the racist system of apartheid. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) - a regulatory body in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors - told the BBC that Starlink had never submitted an application for a licence. Musk has also accused the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the fourth-largest party in South Africa, of "actively promoting" a genocide through a song it sings at its rallies. Racially charged row between Musk and South Africa over Starlink EFF leader Julius Malema's trademark song is "Shoot the Boer, Shoot the farmer", which he sings at political rallies. Afrikaner lobby groups have tried to get the song banned, saying it was highly inflammatory and amounted to hate speech. However, South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that Malema is within his rights to sing the lyrics - first popularised during the anti-apartheid struggle - at political rallies. The court ruled that a "reasonably well-informed person" would understand that when "protest songs are sung, even by politicians, the words are not meant to be understood literally, nor is the gesture of shooting to be understood as a call to arms or violence". Instead, the song was a "provocative way" of advancing the EFF's political agenda - which was to end "land and economic injustice". Lobby group AfriForum filed an appeal against the ruling, but South Africa's highest court refused to hear the case, saying it had little chance of succeeding. In 2023, South Africa's former President Thabo Mbeki urged Malema to stop singing the song, saying it was no longer politically relevant as the anti-apartheid struggle was over. The ANC says it no longer sings it, but it cannot "prescribe to other political parties what they must sing". It doesn't look like it. In March, a business group said that close to 70,000 Afrikaners had expressed interest in moving to the US following Trump's offer - from an estimated population of 2.5 million. On Monday, the US embassy in South Africa released a statement clarifying the criteria for resettlement, saying it covered people from any racial minority, not just Afrikaners, who could cite an incident of past persecution or fear of persecution in the future. South Africa's most recent census, done in 2022, shows that Coloureds, (an officially used term meaning people of mixed racial origin) are the largest minority, making up 8% of the population. They are followed by white people, including Afrikaners, at 7%, and Asians at 3%. After Trump's offer, Afrikaner lobby group Solidarity posted an article on its website headlined: "Ten historical reasons to stay in South Africa". In parliament last week, the leader of the right-wing Freedom Front Plus party said they were committed to South Africa. "We are bound to Africa and will build a future for ourselves and our children here," Corné Mulder said. Do Afrikaners want to take Trump up on his South African refugee offer? PODCAST: Are white Afrikaners really being targeted in South Africa? What's really driving Trump's fury with South Africa? Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa
