Trump raises the ‘white genocide in South Africa’ issue during his meeting with President Ramaphosa, shows video of opposition leader calling for killing of white farmers
After a showdown with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the Oval Office in February this year, US President Donald Trump pulled a similar stunt during his meeting with the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, on Wednesday (21st May). In the meeting that was supposed to improve the relations between the US and South Africa, Trump raised the issue of persecution of white minorities in the country.
Trump also confronted President Ramaphosa with a video clip to claim that a ‘White genocide’ was taking place in South Africa. The video clip showed a far-left opposition leader, Julius Malema, singing with protestors, “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer”, a slogan that was popular during the apartheid-era fight against white-minority rule in the country.
In a room full of reporters and government officials, President Ramaphosa was taken by surprise when President Donald Trump unexpectedly played the video. However, maintaining his calm amid flaring tensions, he explained to the US President that the remarks made in the video did not represent the policy of the South African government.
“Our government policy is completely against what he was saying, even in the Parliament. And they are a small minority party, which is allowed to exist in terms of our Constitution,” said President Ramaphosa, to which Trump responded, “But you do allow them to take land. And then when they take the land. They kill the white farmer. And when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them.”
Refuting Trump’s allegations, Ramaphosa said, “No, no, no, no, nobody can take land. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are Black people.”
Notably, the incident comes days after the US government granted asylum to 54 white Afrikaner South Africans. While Donald Trump suspended the US refugee settlement programme in January on his first day in office, later he signed an executive order to grant refugee status to Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch and French colonisers. The white people in South Africa allege that they are facing discrimination in the country.
President Ramaphosa calls the White genocide a false narrative
Ahead of his visit to the Oval Office, the South African President outrightly dismissed the allegations of a White genocide taking place in South Africa as a “false narrative”. On 16th May he wrote on X, “The false narratives about a genocide are not a reflection of who we are as a nation, and during our working visit to the U.S., we will be advancing a proudly South African message”.
Persecution of minorities in South Africa
Donald Trump has been alleging persecution of the White minority in South Africa. While he suspended the US refugee settlement programme in January on his first day in office, later he signed an executive order to grant refugee status to Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch and French colonisers in South Africa. They have been alleging that they are facing discrimination in the country. Earlier this month, the US government granted asylum to 54 white Afrikaner South Africans.
In February, Trump issued an executive order suspending foreign aid to South Africa, alleging that the South African government under President Ramaphosa “radically disfavored landowners”. The South African government had criticised the US executive order.
More than 26 years since the end of apartheid, once South Africa’s system of legal segregation, the country continues to remain marred with the scourge of racism. The oppressor and the oppressed simply have swapped places. The unrest escalatted after President Ramaphosa announced in 2018 that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) planned to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation.
The party began the process of expropriating land from white farmers for redistribution to black farmers. It followed the “willing seller, willing buyer” model whereby the government buys farms owned by white farmers and redistribute them to black farmers. White farmers opposed the proposal as deeply unjust and approached the courts against it. However, this opposition to the expropriation plan proved costly for white farmers, many of whom were murdered in targeted killings, presumably because they had opposed the African National Congress’s party redistribution plan.
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