Key points
- Trump, shakes head and says “no” when asked if he was told about location of burial sites
- Video played was made in September 2020 during a protest after two people were killed on their farm a week earlier
- No land expropriation has taken place, and any order can be challenged in court
- South African police recorded 26,232 murders nationwide in 2024, eight of those were farmers
ISLAMABAD: United States President Donald Trump admitted not knowing the location of alleged “burial sites of over 1,000 white farmers” in South Africa when the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa questioned him in their meeting at the White House.
This was pointed out by Jimmy Kimmel in his programme. The video, that can be accessed below, shows (from 3:50—3:57 minutes) the US president claiming while pointing to a video: “these are burial sites …over a thousand white farmers” in South Africa. At this, the South African president, in a calm and composed manner, questions the US president: “Have they [US president’s staff] told you where that is Mister President?”, to which, President Trump, after a shake of head, replies: “No”.
The South African president adds: “I’d like to know where that is because this I’ve never seen.”
No data to support
NBC News in an Instagram post reported: President Trump makes South African President Cyril Ramaphosa watch videos promoting baseless claims that Afrikaners, white descendants of Dutch and French settlers, were targets of a “genocide” – even though there is no data to support it.
View this post on Instagram
According to Reuters, with the lights turned down at Trump’s request, the video – played on a television that is not normally set up in the Oval Office – showed white crosses, which Trump asserted were the graves of white people. The video was made in September 2020 during a protest after two people were killed on their farm a week earlier.
Not actual graves
The crosses did not mark actual graves. An organizer of the protest told South Africa’s public broadcaster at the time that they represented farmers who had been killed over the years.
Eight farmers in over 26,000 recorded murders
According to Reuters, South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, but the overwhelming majority of victims are Black. South African police recorded 26,232 murders nationwide in 2024, with 44 linked to farming communities. Eight of those victims were farmers.
South Africa, which endured centuries of draconian discrimination against Black people during colonialism and apartheid before becoming a multi-party democracy in 1994 under Nelson Mandela, rejects Trump’s allegations.
No expropriation
A new land reform law, aimed at redressing the injustices of apartheid, allows for expropriations without compensation when in the public interest, for example if land is lying fallow. No such expropriation has taken place, and any order can be challenged in court.
Myth of white genocide
Ramaphosa, sitting in a chair next to Trump and remaining poised, pushed back against his claims.
“If there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you, these three gentlemen would not be here,” Ramaphosa said, referring to golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen and billionaire Johann Rupert, all white, who were present in the room.
The myth of white genocide in South Africa has become a rallying point for the far right in the United States and elsewhere.
Genocide case against Israel
Ramaphosa had hoped to use Wednesday’s meeting to reset his country’s relationship with the US, after Trump canceled much-needed aid to South Africa, offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners, expelled the country’s ambassador and criticised its genocide court case against Israel, according to Reuters.
