President Donald Trump claimed there is an ongoing “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa during a tense meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa, major political parties in South Africa and a South African judge, however, have denied the existence of a white genocide in the country.
Elon Musk, a South African native and a top adviser to Trump, was present for Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House. He has also previously voiced Trump’s allegations that white South Africans are fleeing the country due to “violence and racist laws.”
President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House, May 21, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
In February 2025, a South African court ruled that claims of white genocide were unfounded, calling them “not real” and “clearly imagined.”
The ruling came after a wealthy benefactor in the country wanted to donate $2.1 million to the white supremacist group Boerelegioen, which was denied by the court.
While claims of a white genocide have been disallowed by the court, it is true that there is a problem with farmers being murdered in South Africa.
These murders are brutal, and the overall murder rate in South Africa is high, with 45 murders per 100,000 people, according to data collected in 2023, but there is no indication that these murders are race-driven.
South African crime statistics do not differentiate between the races of victims, and there is no specific category for farm murders.
During the Oval Office meeting with Trump, Ramaphosa said, “There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity are not only white people, majority of them are Black people.”
Elon Musk attends a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, April 30, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
South Africa’s Presidential Spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told ABC News there is “no evidence” to support the claims of genocide and alleged that the United States’ foreign intelligence would reiterate that.
“There is no evidence of what’s being claimed here. The U.S. has very sophisticated intelligence gathering mechanism. I can tell you now, if your intelligence community were willing to come out and speak, they’ll tell you that what is being propagated here is completely false,” Magwenya said.
The White House released a statement after the meeting titled “President Trump is Right About What’s Happening in South Africa,” doubling down on the administration’s unfounded claims of genocide happening in the nation.
The statement has a litany of press clippings that they say defend their position that a genocide is happening in the country, pointing to articles from Fox News, Breitbart and the BBC. Many of the clippings in the release refer to individual acts or threats of violence.
Amid Trump and Musk’s continued claims of genocide, dozens of Afrikaner refugees arrived in the U.S. last week after having their applications fast-tracked under an executive order issued by Trump in February titled “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa.”
The order contends the South African government passed a law allowing it to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation” in a “shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights.”
It instructs that the U.S. will not provide aid or assistance to the nation, and that the U.S. will “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees.”
Trump has been criticized for prioritizing Afrikaners while moving to restrict immigration from elsewhere, including from Afghanistan, Venezuela and Haiti.