President Donald Trump said there was an ongoing “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa during a tense meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the oval office on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa, the main political parties in South Africa and South African judge, however, denied the existence of a white genocide in the country.
Elon Musk, originally from South Africa and high level advisor to Trump, was present for the visit of Ramaphosa to the White House. He also expressed Trump’s allegations that white South Africans flee the country due to “violence and racist laws”.
President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House Oval Office on May 21, 2025 in Washington.
Evan VUCCI / AP
In February 2025, a South African court ruled that the allegations of white genocide were not founded, calling them “not real” and “clearly imagined”.
The decision was made after a rich benefactor in the country wanted to donate $ 2.1 million to the White Boerelegioen supremacist group, which was refused by the court.
Although the allegations of a white genocide have been refused by the Court, it is true that there is a problem with the farmers murdered in South Africa.
These murders are brutal and the rate of overall murder in South Africa is high, with 45 murders per 100,000 people, according to data collected in 2023, but nothing indicates that these murders are focused on the race.
South African crime statistics do not make the difference between the breeds of the victims, and there is no specific category for agricultural murders.
During the meeting of the oval office with Trump, Ramaphosa said: “There is crime in our country. People who are killed, unfortunately, thanks to criminal activities are not only whites, the majority of them are blacks.”
Elon Musk attends a meeting of the cabinet in the room of the White House cabinet in Washington, April 30, 2025.
Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images
South African presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told ABC News that there was “no evidence” to support the allegations of genocide and alleged that foreign intelligence in the United States would reiterate him.
“There is no evidence of what is claimed here. The United States has a very sophisticated information collection mechanism. I can tell you now, if your intelligence community was willing to go out and speak, they will tell you that what is spreading here is completely false,” said Magwenya.
The White House published a statement after the meeting entitled “President Trump is right on what is happening in South Africa”, doubling the unfounded allegations of the administration of genocide in the nation.
The declaration has a litany of press clippings which say they defend their position according to which a genocide occurs in the country, pointing articles by Fox News, Breitbart and the BBC. Numerous press releases refer to individual acts or threats of violence.
In the midst of the continuous affirmations of genocide of Trump and Musk, dozens of Afrikaner refugees arrived in the United States last week after their requests accelerated under an executive decree published by Trump in February entitled “Adjusting blatant actions of the Republic of South Africa”.
The ordinance maintains that the South African government has adopted a law allowing it to “seize the agricultural property of ethnic minorities of Afrikaners minorities without compensation” in “shocking contempt for the rights of its citizens”.
He indicates that the United States will not provide aid or aid to the nation and that the United States “will promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees”.
Trump was criticized for having prioritized Afrikaners while moving to restrict immigration, including Afghanistan, Venezuela and Haiti.
