Trump recently began accepting white Africans as refugees from the majority of black countries. Experts and the South African government reject Trump’s claim that they are victims of discrimination.
Trump welcomes us the first white South African refugees
After suspending the US refugee program, President Trump has made the exception to white South Africans known as Africans.
- Ramaphosa has denied Trump’s accusations and is calling for “good trade debate.”
- “There’s no white genocide. It’s a story that was sold,” said Tapero Mohapi, executive director of Abalari Basmejondro, a movement for the poor in South Africa.
WASHINGTON – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on May 21 to discuss trade, placing the two leaders on the clash course after weeks of trading barb.
Trump cut off US aid to South Africa to what he called a “grudish” accusations of genocide against Israel and to “promote disproportionate violence against racially disadvantaged landowners.” He also began to embrace white South Africans – many of them descended from Dutch settlers known as Africans – just as refugees suspected racism.
Ramaphosa called the accusations of racial persecution of Africans “a totally false tale.” Apartheid, where South Africa was ruled by the country’s white minority and black South Africans – basic civil rights were taken away, but ended in 1994, but white people still own most of the land, dominating a very distinctive proportion of the country’s wealth.
Ramaphosa speaking between South Africa and the US
Trump has said white South Africans are victims of “genocide.” This states that South African government and human rights experts are not supported by the evidence.
Ramaphosa told reporters ahead of the trip that she was not worried about her hostile welcome at the White House.
“There is no genocide in South Africa,” Ramaphosa said. “We’re going to have a good discussion about trade.”
South Africa’s Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said on social media on May 20 that he held a constructive meeting with US trade representative Jamieson Greer.
“Trade between our two countries is essential and we are determined to ensure that access to agricultural products remains open in a mutually beneficial way,” SteenHuisen said. “Trade means employment and economic growth.”
The US had a $8 billion trade deficit with South Africa in 2024.
Trump has suspended refugee programs for most non-Africans
Upon taking office, Trump quickly suspended the US refugee enrollment program and ordered most potential refugees to remain in other countries.
However, the exception ordered by Trump on February 7th was for “Africans in South Africa, victims of unfair racism.”
The Trump administration warmly welcomed 59 white people from South Africa when they arrived on May 12 after recognising them as refugees.
But South African experts say Trump’s claims of anti-white racism — far less genocide — are unfounded.
“There’s a very clear definition of genocide, and South Africans don’t quite fit the definition of what’s going on with South Africa,” said Mandeep Tiwana, chief executive of evidence and engagement for Civicus, a South Africa-based human rights advocacy group. “In fact, white South Africans are a privileged minority.”
“There’s no white genocide. It’s a story that was sold,” said Tapero Mohapi, executive director of Abalari Basmejondro, a movement for the poor in South Africa.
“As South Africans who live in huts, seeing someone go abroad while flying with gifts and clothes, seeing them receiving a warm welcome from the US presidency, lying that they are being persecuted, that’s a very unfortunate,” Mohapi said, saying that Africans have given them the status of refugees.
“We are, in fact, people living in poverty,” Mohapi said.
Trump’s acceptance of Africans has also angered the refugee assistance program. The Anglican Church announced that it would close the refugee resettlement program on May 12 after asking Trump to help resettle African groups even if the flow of refugees from all other countries ceased.
“This is corruption in the US refugee program,” said Ken Spicher, co-founder of a friend of a refugee in northern Virginia, at Dulles airport, where he was protesting the arrival of Africans.
Disputed the claim of “genocide” in South Africa
Genocide is defined in the Genocide Convention, an international treaty that criminalizes genocide as the murder of a group’s members due to race, religion, or national origin, like the Holocaust.
“White farmers are being brutally murdered,” Trump told reporters on May 12 in the Roosevelt Room at the White House.
Ramaphosa branded the claim as a “fake story.”
In South Africa, white people are far less likely to be murder victims than black people. Group Genocide Watch says that South Africa’s population is 7% white, but white people account for just 2% of murder victims.
The South African government said on May 9 that “South African Police Services Statistics on Farm-Related Crimes do not support allegations of violent crimes targeted at general or specific races.”
The country’s white “genocide” allegations have been greatly strengthened by Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, who is a South African at birth.
Last week, users of X, a social media site owned by Musk, widely reported that the AI chatbot repeatedly spewed statements that the South African white massacre is real in unrelated conversations. Musk has also frequently used the platform to broadcast his accusations that white South Africans are victims of targeted racial violence.
“When a farmer dies, the farmer is white and the farmer has privileges, so you need to know the whole world,” Mohapi said. “Black people can die anytime like a fly.”
Rubio clashes in Kane at Senate hearing over South African refugees
The conflict against South African refugees was announced on May 20th. It erupted during a senator’s hearing between Senator Tim Kane and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Kane disputed that Africans are refugees because their party is part of the government.
“I argue that this claim is that there is persecution of African hungerers,” Kane said.
Rubio said the Africans who arrived as refugees felt persecuted because “their farms were burnt out and killed due to their skin color.”
Rubio denied that the Trump administration supported Africans as refugees. He said accepting refugees from more countries would lead to millions of people arriving.
“It acted as a magnet,” Rubio said of the refugee program. “They can’t all come here.”
Black South Africans suffer from unbalanced poverty
Trump’s recent white “genocide” claim at the South African Centre for Land Reform Act, signed by Ramaphosa in January, was called the expropriation law.
The bill, which aims to sort out the reconciliation of land ownership left behind from South Africa’s racial apartheid system, opens a route for the government to seize private land for public use.
The White House executive order denounced the bill as “shocking and ignoring citizens’ rights,” and Musk branded it as “racist.”
However, the racial wealth gap in South Africa is slowly tilting in the opposite direction. According to a 2017 government report, white people make up 7% of the population, but they own around 72% of the country’s farms and farmland.
The level of inequality in countries where the World Bank is consistently valued worldwide affects the Black population at a very disproportionate rate. Last year, the unemployment rate for black South Africans reached 37.6%, while 7.9% of white people had no jobs. Approximately 10% of black people received medical care in 2018, compared to 72% of white counterparts.
“We find ourselves in very close and difficult situations,” Mohapi said. “People celebrate when they eat in the day.”
“We’re defending white privileges rather than actually talking about real issues, bread and butter issues,” he said.
