Donald Trump previously signed an executive order to cut funding to South Africa and offer refugee status to Afrikaners, claiming the government was enabling farm attacks and land dispossession.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has strongly dismissed claims that white citizens are being persecuted in South Africa, calling the allegations a “completely false narrative”.
His comments come amid accusations from US President Donald Trump, tech billionaire Elon Musk and white minority groups, that South Africa’s government is enabling violence against the white Afrikaner population.
In his weekly address on Monday, Ramaphosa urged South Africans not to let “events beyond our shores divide us or turn us against each other,” and called for a rejection of the “completely false narrative” that any racial or cultural group is being persecuted in the country.
Although Ramaphosa did not name individuals, his remarks were a direct rebuttal of claims promoted by Trump and Musk that South Africa is intentionally marginalising its white minority through farm attacks and land reform legislation.
Musk and Trump amplify racial allegations
South African-born Elon Musk, a vocal critic of South Africa’s post-apartheid government recently posted on X that some political leaders were “actively promoting white genocide.”
He cited a political rally held by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a far-left opposition party, where its leaders were filmed chanting the controversial liberation-era song “Kill the Boer, the farmer.” The term Boer refers to white Afrikaner farmers.
Musk’s comments echo those of Trump, who recently signed an executive order to cut US funding to South Africa and offer refugee status to Afrikaners in the United States.
Trump’s order accused the South African government of encouraging violence and enacting land expropriation policies designed to dispossess white farmers.
Afrikaners, descendants of mainly Dutch and French settlers, were historically central to the apartheid regime, but have continued to live in post-1994 South Africa, which has made progress on reconciliation.
The EFF, South Africa’s fourth-largest political party with 9.5% of the vote in the last general election, has been criticised in the past for causing racial tensions and repeatedly performing “Kill the Boer” at public events.
While a court banned the song as hate speech over a decade ago, a 2022 ruling reversed the decision, concluding that the song was protected under freedom of expression and did not constitute incitement to violence.
The EFF argues that the chant is a historical slogan from the anti-apartheid struggle, not a literal call to violence. In some cases, the lyrics have been altered to “Kiss the Boer.”
However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the chant “incites violence” and called on South African leaders to protect Afrikaners and other minority groups, adding that the US would welcome those seeking refuge from threats.
Following Trump’s executive order, the South African government has worked to counter what it calls misinformation about violence against white farmers.
While Afrikaner advocacy groups argue that police under-report attacks on rural white farmers, their figures remain small relative to overall crime statistics.
Between October and December last year, the group claimed eight farm murders, while police records showed only one. Yet during the same period, 6,953 homicides occurred nationwide.
