U.S. President Donald Trump attacked South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, describing him as “controversial” in certain circles, and made baseless claims about a “genocide” against white (Afrikaner) farmers in South Africa.
The American president stated, “Many people feel they are being persecuted and are coming to the U.S. We take [people] from many (…) locations if we believe they are being persecuted or subjected to genocide. Generally, they are white farmers, and they are leaving South Africa, and (…) it’s sad to see. But I hope we’ll get an explanation for this, because I know you don’t want it,” he said.
Following this, White House officials played a video referencing claims of genocide against Afrikaners, descendants of white settlers in South Africa.
Afrikaners are the descendants of Dutch settlers who arrived in large numbers from the 17th century, and today represent about 3 million of the total 63 million population.
C. Ramaphosa sat in silence as the images were shown, but later stated that the white crosses appearing in some of the footage were “something he had never seen before.” “I would like to know where this is, because I’ve never seen these videos,” he emphasized.
The videos showed dozens of cars transporting “whole families” of white farmers leaving their land. Trump insisted, showing him photocopies of reports about white South Africans and saying, “They’re killing them.”
C. Ramaphosa acknowledged that South Africa is facing rising crime and said that the issue is widespread, not limited to white people.
While there have been murders of white South Africans, official statistics do not show them to be in a worse position than others. In fact, they are in a much better position than black South Africans in nearly all quality of life indicators, according to the New York Times.
What is fyi.news?
