US president confronts South African leader with claim of Afrikaners ‘persecuted’

US President Donald Trump confronted his South African counterpart in the White House on Wednesday with a video that Trump said that his statement argued that white farmers were “persecuted” in the country.

The images, played at a press conference with Cyril Ramaphosa, showed thousands of crosses making a road that Trump said funeral places for murdered white farmers.

Trump said he didn’t know where in South Africa was filmed and the images had not been checked by the BBC.

Ramaphosa – Who seemed carefully to weigh his response – challenged Trump’s allegation. He said blacks were much more likely to be victims of violence in South Africa than whites.

Trump also said that he would seek an “explanation” of his guest on the allegations of white “genocide” in South Africa, which were largely discredited.

Ramaphosa came to the White House on Wednesday for commercial talks to reset American-South American relations. He hoped to charm Trump with the inclusion of two of the best known golfers in South Africa in the delegation. Ramaphosa also came with a gift from a huge book featuring her country’s golf courses.

But after a cordial start, the atmosphere of the oval office moved when Trump asked that the lighting was lowered for a video.

The film presented the voice of the main South African opposition figure Julius Malema singing: “Turn the boer [Afrikaner]Pull the farmer. “He then showed a field of cross, that the American president, speaking of images, said he was a burial of white farmers. The crosses were in fact part of a demonstration, not tombs, farmers who were killed.

Trump also gave Ramaphosa which seemed to be impressions of stories of whites attacked in South Africa.

“What you saw – the speeches that have been pronounced … It is not a government policy,” said Ramaphosa, responding to the video. “We have a multipartite democracy in South Africa which allows people to express themselves.

“Our government policy is completely against what it [Malema] Even said in Parliament and they are a small minority party, which is authorized to exist according to our constitution. “”

Referring to the crosses of the video, Trump said later: “Farmers are not black. I am not saying it’s good or bad, but farmers are not black …”

The allegations of genocide in South Africa have circulated among the right groups for years. In February, a South African judge rejected claims as “clearly imagined” and “not real”, when they govern themselves in a case of inheritance involving a donation to the white supremacist group.

Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that he hoped Trump would listen to the voices of South Africans on this issue. He underlined the white members of his delegation, including the Golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, and the richest man in South Africa Johann Rupert.

“If there was a genocide, these three gentlemen would not be there,” said Ramaphosa.

Trump interrupted: “But you allow them to take land, then when they take the ground, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them.”

“No,” replied Ramaphosa.

The American chief seemed to refer to what Malema and his party, which are not part of the government, had the power to confiscate the land of white farmers, which they do not do.

He also seemed to mention a controversial law signed by Ramaphosa earlier this year, which allows the government to seize private land without compensation in certain circumstances. The South African government claims that no land has yet been seized under the law.

Addressing Trump on Wednesday, Ramaphosa admitted that there was “crime in our country … People who are killed thanks to criminal activities are not only whites, the majority of them are blacks”.

South Africa does not publish crime-based crime figures, but the last figures show that nearly 10,000 people were murdered in the country between October and December 2024. Among these, one dozen were killed in agricultural attacks and out of the 12, one was a farmer, while five were farm inhabitants and four were employees, who were probably in black.

While Trump pressed the problem, Ramaphosa remained calm – and tried to work his charm by joking about the offer of an airplane in the United States.

He invoked the name of the Anti-Apartheid Nelson Mandela icon, saying that South Africa has remained attached to racial reconciliation.

When a journalist asked what would happen if white farmers left South Africa, Ramaphosa diverted the question to his Minister of White Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, who said that most farmers wanted to stay.

But Trump continued to shoot Salves on Ramaphosa, who avoided participating in a cry match with him – something that happened to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky when he met Trump in the same room in February.

Earlier this month, a group of 59 white South Africans arrived in the United States, where they obtained refugee status. Ramaphosa said at the time that they were “cowards”.

Before Wednesday’s meeting at the White House on Wednesday, the head of South Africa stressed that improving trade relations with the United States was his priority.

South African exports to the United States are facing a price of 30% once a break on new Trump import taxes ends in July.

After the confrontation, Malema made fun of the meeting, describing her as “a group of older men in Washington to lead chatting on me”.

“No significant amount of evidence of intelligence has been produced on the genocide of whites. We will not accept to compromise our political principles on the expropriation of land without compensation for political opportunity,” he posted on X.

Tensions between South Africa and the United States increased the days after Trump took office for his second term in January.

It was at this point that Ramaphosa signed the controversial bill which allows the Government of South Africa to expropriate private land in cases where it is deemed “fair and in the public interest”.

This decision only served to tarnish the image of the greatest economy in Africa in the eyes of the Trump administration – already irritated by its case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

In February, the American president announced the suspension of critical aid in South Africa and proposed to authorize members of the Afrikaner community – who are mostly white descendants of the first Dutch and French settlers – to settle in the United States as refugees.

South African Ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was also expelled in March after accused Trump of “mobilizing a supremacism” and trying to “project the white victim like a dog whistle”.

Additional Khanyisile reports Ngcobo and Farouk Chothia