Trump recently began accepting White Afrikaners as refugees from the majority-Black country. Experts and the South African government reject Trump’s claim they are victims of discrimination.
Trump welcomes first white South African refugees to US
After suspending the U.S. refugee program, President Trump is making an exception for white South Africans, known as Afrikaners.
- Ramaphosa denies Trump’s accusations and seeks “good discussions on trade.”
- “There is no White genocide. It is a story that has been sold,” said Thapelo Mohapi, secretary general of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a South African poor people’s movement.
WASHINGTON – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on May 21 to discuss trade, putting the two leaders on a collision course after weeks of traded barbs.
Trump cut off U.S. aid to South Africa for what he called “egregious” accusations of genocide against Israel and for “fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners” – a claim widely disputed by experts and human rights activists, in addition to South Africa’s government. He also began accepting White people from South Africa − many of them descendants of Dutch colonists known as Afrikaners – as refugees fleeing alleged racial discrimination.
Ramaphosa called accusations of racial persecution against Afrikaners a “completely false narrative.” Although apartheid − in which South Africa was controlled by the country’s White minority and Black South Africans were deprived of basic civil rights, ended in 1994 − white people still own a large majority of the land and control a hugely outsized share of the country’s wealth.
Ramaphosa to talk between South Africa and US
Trump has said the White South Africans are the victims of “genocide” – an accusation the South African government and human rights experts say is not supported by evidence.
Ramaphosa told reporters May 17 ahead of his trip that he wasn’t worried about a hostile welcome at the White House.
“There is no genocide in South Africa,” Ramaphosa said. “We are going to have good discussions on trade.”
John Steenhuisen, the South African minister for agriculture, said on social media May 20 that he had a constructive meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
“Trade is essential between our two countries and we are determined to ensure that access for agricultural products remains open in a mutually beneficial way,” Steenhuisen said. “Trade means jobs and a growing economy.”
The United States had an $8 billion trade deficit with South Africa in 2024.
Trump suspends refugee program for most other than Afrikaners
Upon taking office, Trump immediately suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and ordered most potential refugees to remain in other countries.
But an exception Trump ordered Feb. 7 was for “Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination” who he offered admission and resettlement in the United States as refugees.
The Trump administration warmly greeted 59 White people from South Africa upon their arrival on May 12, after granting them refugee status.
But experts on South Africa say Trump’s claims of anti-White discrimination − much less genocide − are baseless.
“Genocide has a very clear definition and what is happening in South Africa with White South Africans does not fit the definition at all,” said Mandeep Tiwana, chief officer of evidence and engagement at CIVICUS, a human rights advocacy organization headquartered in South Africa. “In fact, White South Africans are a privileged minority.”
“There is no White genocide. It is a story that has been sold,” said Thapelo Mohapi, secretary general of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a South African poor people’s movement.
“It is very unfortunate, as a poor South African that lives in a shack, seeing somebody going abroad on a flight with gifts and clothing and receiving a warm welcome from the presidency in the U.S., with a lie that they are being persecuted,” Mohapi said of the Afrikaners granted refugee status.
“We, in fact, are the ones who are living in poverty,” Mohapi said.
Trump’s admission of the Afrikaners also angered refugee assistance programs. The Episcopal Church announced it would shutter its refugee resettlement program on May 12 after Trump asked it to help resettle the group of Afrikaners – even as the flow of refugees from all other countries had stopped.
“This is a corruption of the U.S. refugee program,” Kenn Speicher, co-founder of Northern Virginia Friends of Refugees, said at Dulles Airport, where he was protesting the Afrikaners’ arrival.
Disputed claims of ‘genocide’ in South Africa
Genocide is defined in the Genocide Convention, an international treaty that criminalizes genocide, as the killing of members of a group because of their race, religion or national origin, as in the Holocaust.
“White farmers are being brutally killed,” Trump told reporters May 12 in the White House Roosevelt Room.
Ramaphosa has branded the claim a “false narrative.”
In South Africa, White people are much less likely to be murder victims than Black people. The group Genocide Watch has said that while South Africa’s population is 7% White, White people make up just 2% of its murder victims.
The South African government said on May 9 that “The South Africa Police Services statistics on farm related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race.”
Allegations of a White “genocide” in the country have been heavily bolstered by Elon Musk, Trump’s close advisor, who is South African by birth.
Last week, users of X, the social media site owned by Musk, widely reported that its AI chatbot repeatedly spitted out statements that the South African White genocide 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, then the whole world must know, because that farmer is White and the farmer is privileged,” Mohapi said. “Black people can die anytime, like flies.”
Rubio, Kaine clash at Senate hearing over South African refugees
The conflict over South African refugees erupted at a Senate hearing May 20 between Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Kaine disputed that Afrikaners are refugees because their political party is part of the government.
“I assert that this claim that there is persecution of Afrikaner famers is specious,” Kaine said.
Rubio said the Afrikaners who arrived as refugees felt persecuted because “their farms were burned down and they were killed because of the color of their skin.”
Rubio denied the Trump administration favored Afrikaners as refugees because they are White. He said accepting refugees from more countries would lead to millions of more people arriving.
“It was acting as a magnet,” Rubio said of the refugee program. “They can’t all come here.”
Black South Africans suffer disproportionate poverty
Trump’s allegations of a White “genocide” in South Africa center on recent land reform legislation signed by Ramaphosa in January called the Expropriation Act.
The bill, aimed at rectifying inequality in land ownership left over from South Africa’s racial apartheid system, opens pathways for the government to seize private land for public use – sometimes without compensation.
The White House’s executive order slammed the bill as “in shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights” and Musk branded it “racist.”
But South Africa’s racial wealth gap leans starkly in the opposite direction. Whites make up just over 7% of the population, but own around 72% of the country’s farms and agricultural land, according to a 2017 government report.
The country’s inequality levels – consistently rated by the World Bank as among the worst globally – impact its Black population at a vastly disproportionate rate. Last year, the unemployment rate hit 37.6% for Black South Africans, while 7.9% of Whites were without a job. Around 10% of Blacks had medical care in 2018, as compared to 72% of their White counterparts.
“We are finding ourselves in a very tight and difficult situation,” said Mohapi. “People celebrate when they get a meal a day.”
“We are defending White privilege rather than to actually talk about the real issues, the bread and butter issues,” he said.