South Africa’s Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on Friday strongly refuted U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that a video shown during a White House meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa depicted mass graves of white farmers killed in a so-called genocide.
During the Oval Office meeting on May 21, Trump pointed to an aerial clip showing white crosses along a rural road, claiming it showed “burial sites, over a thousand, of white farmers.” Mchunu dismissed the claim, clarifying that the crosses were a temporary memorial from a 2020 protest following the farm killing of a white couple — not graves.
“They are not graves. They don’t represent graves,” said Mchunu. “It was unfortunate that those facts got twisted to fit a false narrative about crime in South Africa.”
Mchunu emphasized that farm killings affect both Black and white South Africans and make up a small portion of the country's high overall homicide rate. Of more than 5,700 murders from January to March, only six occurred on farms, with one white victim.
Trump has recently pushed unsubstantiated claims that South Africa is targeting white farmers in a state-backed campaign of land seizures and violence — claims South African officials have condemned as misinformation.
“We have respect for the president of the United States,” Mchunu said. “But we have no respect for his genocide story whatsoever.”
Trump’s administration has escalated tensions, with a recent executive order cutting U.S. aid to South Africa, accusing it of persecuting white landowners and supporting Hamas through its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
During the Oval Office meeting on May 21, Trump pointed to an aerial clip showing white crosses along a rural road, claiming it showed “burial sites, over a thousand, of white farmers.” Mchunu dismissed the claim, clarifying that the crosses were a temporary memorial from a 2020 protest following the farm killing of a white couple — not graves.
“They are not graves. They don’t represent graves,” said Mchunu. “It was unfortunate that those facts got twisted to fit a false narrative about crime in South Africa.”
Mchunu emphasized that farm killings affect both Black and white South Africans and make up a small portion of the country's high overall homicide rate. Of more than 5,700 murders from January to March, only six occurred on farms, with one white victim.
Trump has recently pushed unsubstantiated claims that South Africa is targeting white farmers in a state-backed campaign of land seizures and violence — claims South African officials have condemned as misinformation.
“We have respect for the president of the United States,” Mchunu said. “But we have no respect for his genocide story whatsoever.”
Trump’s administration has escalated tensions, with a recent executive order cutting U.S. aid to South Africa, accusing it of persecuting white landowners and supporting Hamas through its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.