Donald Trump questions South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at White House over baseless claims
Washington, DC: According to The Hill, US President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday (local time) with unsupported allegations that white South Africans, especially Afrikaner farmers, are being systematically murdered.
The Hill reports that despite no evidence of deliberate violence, Trump’s government has lately granted Afrikaner farmers accelerated access to US citizenship and refugee status. This change in policy runs counter to the administration’s normally stringent immigration policies.
Former liberation warrior and anti-apartheid activist Ramaphosa had delicately refuted Trump’s remarks in response to the allegations.
According to The Hill, during the meeting, Trump played a nearly four-minute video that was purportedly shared by Afrikaner advocacy groups. The video featured inflammatory clips of Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party in South Africa. The video cited Malema as a major threat and recommended that Ramaphosa have him arrested for inciting violence.
But years ago, Malema was kicked out of the African National Congress.
Trump used television clips he said demonstrated the rise in violence to support his claims that white farmers are being slain and their property taken.
He also mentioned the Witkruis Monument, a monument of white crosses in South Africa, as a mass graveyard for white farmers who were killed, despite the fact that the structure is symbolic and honors all victims of farm assaults.
Trump mentioned Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters, saying, “It’s more than just a little movement — it’s a pretty big movement in South Africa,” according to The Hill.
“Their land is being confiscated and, in many cases, they’re being killed,” Trump said.
Ramaphosa denied the genocide claim, pointing out that Malema is the leader of a tiny opposition party and has the constitutional right to voice his opinions. He emphasized that while crime is an issue in the nation, white farmers are not disproportionately affected by it.
“Our government policy is completely, completely against what you were saying, even in the Parliament,” the president of South Africa said, according to “The Hill.” “They’re a small minority party that is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.”
The Hill claims that while Afrikaners, who are descended from Dutch immigrants, make up less than 7% of South Africa’s population, they controlled the nation from apartheid until 1994. Following a career in business and labor leadership, Ramaphosa, who was president in 2018, was a former employee of Nelson Mandela.
In order to remedy past injustices from apartheid, such as land inequality, the South African Parliament recently approved laws. Critics like Elon Musk, who attended the conference, have exploited the change to argue that white South Africans are in danger, even though no land has been taken under the legislation. According to The Hill, Musk has also said that Black Economic Empowerment regulations prevent his firm, Starlink, from operating in South Africa.
No international organization has declared the situation in South Africa to be genocide, according to The Hill. According to the nation’s 2024 crime statistics, out of 6,032 murders, just 44 took place on farms, and only one involved a farmer. The race of the victims is not specified in the statistics.