Donald Trump has claimed for years that White South Africans are being massacred, going as far as to accept refugees who aren’t even refugees.
White South Africans, also known as Afrikaners, are descendants of predominantly Dutch settlers who settled on the southern tip of Africa in the 17th century.
The National Party, a group that mostly consisted of Afrikaners, rose to power after they won the general election in 1948. The National Party established apartheid, which was the policy which governed relations between the nonwhite majority and the white minority of South Africa. From 1948 to 1994, apartheid dictated jobs, houses, and life of nonwhites. But even through all his oppression, Trump claims that Afrikaners are the victims of genocide.
“White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa,” Trump said.
Translation: Both colored and white South African farmers have fallen victim to attacks nowhere near frequent enough to qualify as genocide, not to mention the lack of evidence for these claims.
Despite Trump’s claims, colored people have it worse.
In 2024, from April to June, the unemployment rate was 33.5%. 37.6% was among Black South Africans, while 7.9% was among White South Africans and 23.3% were mixed race, according to Reuters.
“It is completely false to claim that people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s current president. “They are leaving because they don’t want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country and our constitution.”
Even Afrikaners admit the illegitimacy of Trump’s claims.
“I think even to speak about it as genocide is belittling and insulting the whole idea, the whole concept of genocide,” said Johan Viljoen, an Afrikaner Director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
The idea that this is genocide is ignorant to the millions of refugees around the world in much more drastic conditions. For example, as of June 4, 2025, there are nearly 55,000 reported Palestinian fatalities, and over 125,000 reported injuries. Nearly 16,000 of those fatalities were children. 100% of households have faced food insecurity, according to IPC.
“Sometimes we get food. Sometimes we don’t,” said Amjad Hammad, a refugee from Gaza who currently lives in Egypt. “What are the Palestinians facing if the people in South Africa are facing a genocide?”
