South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed claims that white people are being persecuted in the country, calling it a "completely false narrative" in his latest attempt to refute allegations from US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and some white minority groups in South Africa.
Elon Musk, born in South Africa, has frequently accused the country's Black-led government of being anti-white. Over the weekend, he reiterated a claim on social media that some South African political figures are “actively promoting white genocide.”
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In his weekly address, Ramaphosa urged South Africans not to let external events divide them. He particularly emphasized the need to challenge the "completely false narrative" that the country is targeting individuals of a specific race or culture for persecution.
Though Ramaphosa did not name names, his statement appeared to be a direct response to accusations made by Trump and others that South Africa is deliberately mistreating the white Afrikaner minority by encouraging violent attacks on their farms and introducing a law to seize their land.
These allegations were central to an executive order Trump issued last month, which cut funding to South Africa’s government while offering refugee status to Afrikaners in the U.S.
Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch and French colonial settlers, played a key role in South Africa’s apartheid government, which oppressed non-white populations. However, since apartheid ended in 1994, South Africa has made significant progress in reconciling its racial groups.
Musk, in his social media post on X, referred to a rally in South Africa where leaders of a far-left opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, sang a song with the lyrics “Kill the Boer, the farmer.” The term "Boer" refers to Afrikaners.
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“Very few people know that there is a major political party in South Africa that is actively promoting white genocide,” Musk wrote, linking to a video of the rally.
The Economic Freedom Fighters, South Africa's fourth-largest party in Parliament, opposes Ramaphosa's African National Congress. It received 9.5% of the vote in last year’s elections and has been criticised for inflaming racial tensions, particularly for singing the song, which was used during apartheid as a call to resist oppression.
The song's modern-day use has sparked controversy in South Africa. While some parties and groups, including an Afrikaner association, challenged its use in court, it was ruled as hate speech and banned more than a decade ago. However, in 2022, a court determined that it was not hate speech and protected under free speech as it did not incite violence.
Since Trump's executive order, the South African government has been working to correct what it says is misinformation surrounding the issue of white farmers, who sometimes fall victim to violent attacks. While the government condemns these attacks, experts argue there is no evidence of widespread targeting of whites. They suggest that such attacks are part of South Africa's broader violent crime rates, which affect all races.
The Afrikaner group has claimed that farm homicides have been underreported by the police. For instance, it reported eight farm homicides in the three-month period between October and December last year, while the police recorded only one. During the same period, South Africa's police reported a total of 6,953 homicides nationwide.