How Trump Showed Old Videos To Falsely Claim White Genocide In South Africa

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump, in a White House meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, showed footage of “burial sites” of “over 1,000” white farmers in South Africa. 

In another of Trump’s ambushes, the lights were dimmed to show the footage of a road in a rural area which was lined with white crosses and a lot of vehicles. Trump said, “These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers.”

But NYT did an analysis and found that the video was actually from a memorial procession of a white farming couple in the area, which took place on September 5, 2020, near Newcastle, South Africa. A local news website ran the report and the headline read “Procession to Normandien stretches across many kilometres”. Per the police, the couple had been murdered in late August of 2020.

The multiple crosses were planted ahead of the event and later removed. They were not gravesites for farmers. The footage that was posted on social media also showed people setting up the white crosses. Moreover, Google Street View images from 2023 show that they don’t exist anymore.

This was his evidence presented regarding the racial persecution of white South Africans. A White House official told the NYT that each cross represented one white slain farmer, but did not say why Trump said that the video showed a burial site. Elon Musk had also shared the same video twice on X. 

White crosses have been known to represent farmers who have been killed. With protests going on against the killing of white farmers, videos and photos from the September 5th event also showed tractors with flags condemning farmer murders and a banner that read, “President Ramaphosa, how many more must die???”

Although South Africa has a high murder rate, police statistics do not prove that white South Africans are more vulnerable to violent crime. Moreover, according to the United Nations definition, South Africa does not justify “genocide” definition. Genocide requires acts, such as murder, bodily and mental harm, “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” There is no evidence of such happenings in South Africa, whose agriculture minister is also white.