Photo: Alamy | Analysis by Summer Lane
On Wednesday, President Trump took South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to task over reports of white genocide in the visiting president’s home country, confronting him on the violence unfolding there by sharing numerous incidents that have been uncovered by media outlets around the world.
The diplomatic moment arose during a meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa in the Oval Office – a meeting, according to Trump, that the South African leader had asked for.
On the heels of Wednesday’s events, it’s likely Ramaphosa has regretted that decision, because it appears he came to the White House seeking trade opportunities and assistance from the United States, but likewise came unprepared to answer tough questions about reports of widespread killings in South Africa.
During their meeting, a member of the media asked President Trump what it would take to convince him that there is no white genocide unfolding in South Africa. Ramaphosa volunteered to answer the question, suggesting that his political peers would not have traveled with him to the White House if there was genocide in his country.
Trump strongly rebutted Ramaphosa’s claim, stating that there were thousands of stories documenting such violence, particularly aimed at white farmers in South Africa. Trump was clearly prepared for Ramaphosa to deny the killings, ordering a television to be rolled in that displayed video footage of radical South African leaders calling for the slaughter of whites.
Ramaphosa looked extremely uncomfortable as the video played, and even more uncomfortable as President Trump proceeded to hand the South African leader a bundle of printed news stories documenting many incidents of alleged killings and attacks on White Afrikaners.
With the White House exchange going viral online, this may be the first time that many Americans have become aware of the situation in South Africa, and it begs the question: despite Ramaphosa’s denial of the killings, what’s really going on over there?
Asylum requests have skyrocketed since February
Whether Ramaphosa denies it or not, South Afrikaners have responded to the Trump administration’s offer of asylum in the United States by the tens of thousands, suggesting that something is very wrong.
According to the BBC, nearly 70,000 South Africans have applied for asylum in the United States, as a response to Trump’s earlier executive order allowing them to request refugee status amid reports of the harrowing killings.
In that same order, Trump took pointed aim at South Africa for taking “aggressive actions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.”
Clearly, President Trump’s concern with South Africa is not simply limited to reports of white killings – it’s also centered on the country’s troubling actions concerning Hamas and Iran.
Reports of violence abound in South Africa
Mainstream outlets around the world have reported robustly on South Africa’s purported problems with racial violence, and it’s been unfolding for quite some time. In 2023, Sky News host Rita Panahi reported on the disturbing rhetoric popping up in South Africa, which seems to have spurred violence.
“These people are real, these farm attacks are real and have been happening for several years now but South Africa’s Equality Court ruled just last year that chants about killing farmers were NOT hate speech,” she said.
She was likely referring here to the “Dubula iBhunu” song, which means “Kill the Boer – Kill the Farmer.”
In 2022, the South African Equality Court ruled that this song, which has been a popular chant among radicals in the country, was not hate speech and should not be taken literally, per a report from Ground Up.
During Ramaphosa’s meeting with President Trump in Washington this week, he claimed that a small “minority” of radicals in South Africa were allowed to exist under their constitution.
While this may be true, Trump countered that when violent extremists kill white farmers and take their land, there has been no consequence or justice on behalf of the victims.
“You do allow them to take land, and when they take the land, they kill the farmer,” Trump said.
Ramaphosa signed a law authorizing governmental land seizures
While the land seizures and killings of white farmers may not be the official government policy of the South African government, Ramaphosa’s past actions suggest he may not be entirely opposed to at least taking land from them.
In January, he signed a bill into law that allows his government to seize land with absolutely no compensation. According to the BBC, white farmers own most of the farmland in South Africa. The existence of such a law appears to suggest that Ramaphosa and his political party, the African National Congress, may believe that South Afrikaners own too much land.
This could explain the apathetic response his administration has had to reports that white farmers are suffering extreme violence at the hands of political zealots.
To his credit, Ramaphosa on Wednesday said he was “completely opposed” to the type of violent rhetoric shown in the video montage of evidence in the White House.
However, the South African government has, thus far, seemed to do nothing to truly address or assuage the problems in its home country, spurring tens of thousands of people to attempt to flee to the United States.
The bottom line
While some may think President Trump’s move to confront Ramaphosa with evidence of violence in South Africa looked like an ambush, it is important to note that this was a meeting requested by the visiting leader.
In his statements Wednesday, it was clear that Ramaphosa came to the White House seeking to “reset” their relationship with the U.S., likely staggering under 30 percent tariffs slapped on them by the Trump administration. He also suggested several times that the United States should contribute technology to his country to address the rising violence.
“The criminality that we are experiencing in our country, we need quite a lot of technological capability,” he said.
He also added that “there is support that we can get from you to help us deal” with the criminality in South Africa.
It appears that Ramaphosa came to the White House looking for a handout, and President Trump will probably not assist South Africa in any meaningful way until these critical issues – ranging from reports of genocide to a troubling relationship with Iran – are addressed.
