South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected claims that white citizens are being persecuted, calling them a “completely false narrative” in his weekly address on Monday. His remarks were a direct rebuttal to allegations made by U.S. President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and certain white minority groups in South Africa.
Musk, who was born in South Africa, has repeatedly accused the country’s Black-led government of being anti-white. Over the weekend, he reignited the controversy by claiming on social media that some political figures were “actively promoting white genocide.”
Ramaphosa urged South Africans not to let foreign influences sow division. “We should challenge the completely false narrative that people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution,” he said.
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While he did not name anyone, Ramaphosa’s comments countered claims by Trump and others that South Africa is deliberately mistreating the white Afrikaner minority by fostering violent farm attacks and passing laws to seize their land.
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The allegations were central to Trump’s recent executive order cutting U.S. funding to South Africa while offering Afrikaners refugee status.
Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch and French settlers who arrived over 300 years ago, were central to South Africa’s apartheid regime, which oppressed non-white citizens. Since apartheid’s end in 1994, South Africa has largely reconciled its racial divisions, but tensions occasionally resurface.
Musk’s post on X cited a recent political rally where leaders of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) sang a controversial anti-apartheid song containing the phrase “Kill the Boer, the farmer.” The word “Boer” refers to Afrikaners.
“Very few people know that a major political party in South Africa is actively promoting white genocide,” Musk wrote, linking to a video of the rally.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Musk’s concerns, calling the song “a chant that incites violence.” He urged South African leaders to protect Afrikaners and other “disfavored minorities,” reaffirming the U.S. commitment to offering refuge.
The EFF, South Africa’s fourth-largest party, won 9.5% of the vote in last year’s national election and has previously drawn criticism for inflaming racial tensions. While a court initially banned the song as hate speech over a decade ago, a 2022 ruling deemed it protected under free speech, as no direct link to violence was proven. The EFF insists the lyrics are historical and symbolic, sometimes modifying them to say “kiss the Boer” instead.
Since Trump’s executive order, South Africa’s government has worked to dispel what it calls misinformation regarding white farmers. While farm attacks do occur, experts say there is no evidence of a coordinated effort to target white farmers specifically. Rather, such crimes are part of the country’s broader issue with violent crime, which affects all racial groups.
A group representing Afrikaners has accused police of undercounting farm-related homicides, claiming eight such murders occurred between October and December last year, while police records list only one.
During that same period, South Africa recorded 6,953 homicides nationwide, highlighting the pervasive nature of violent crime in the country, according to AP’s report.
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