President Trump’s declaration that the U.S. would not attend the G20 summit in South Africa, citing the killing of white Afrikan farmers, inspired a furious reaction to the supposed slander, by NPR’s Kate Bartlett on Monday’s All Things Considered, in a piece to accompany her broadcast report: “Prominent Afrikaners refuse to be 'pawns,' and hit back at Trump's claims about South Africa.”
Trump has been relentlessly critical of South Africa since his return to office.
He ambushed the country's president Cyril Ramaphosa during a White House visit in May falsely accusing his government of seizing white-owned land; cut aid to South Africa; his administration expelled the South African ambassador to Washington; slapped the country with 30 percent tariffs; repeated debunked far-right claims about a white genocide -- and as a result prioritized Afrikaners for fast-track refugee status in the U.S. (while stopping refugee admissions from most other countries).
South Africa, now ruled by black South Africans after decades of apartheid, in fact recently enshrined a white-owned land confiscation policy -- nothing “false” about that. It’s interesting that NPR finally found some migrants they didn’t want admitted to America, while quibbling over the use of the term “genocide,” a term which NPR is fine with when it’s applied to Israel’s war in Gaza.
The South African government has repeatedly tried to correct the White House, providing statistics that disprove these claims – for example the fact that Black people are by far the worst affected by violent crime and that whites still own the majority of commercial farmland – to no avail.
Now, some white Afrikaners themselves, as well as Afrikaans groups, are calling out what they say are the U.S. administration's "lies" and "falsehoods" in their name.
The group included writers, journalists, musicians, university lecturers and Christian clergy.
Under the subhead 'Please stop lying', Bartlett quoted Afrikaner journalist Max du Preez, one of the signatories of the letter, who complained to her of the White House’s "abuse of our ethnic identity to further the MAGA movement's interests." du Preez’s X feed is a painfully predictable mix of anti-Israel, anti-Trump, and pro-BBC reposts, which makes him an ideal voice for NPR.
"There is no genocide in South Africa, there's absolutely no persecution of anyone based on race. Our constitution has iron-clad protection of every citizen's human rights," he said.
"Not a single square inch of white-owned land has been confiscated since we became a democracy in 1994," du Preez added. "Please stop lying about us and using us as pawns."
Trump has repeatedly said he particularly wants to help white Afrikaans farmers. But some agricultural organizations that represent them have stressed their businesses will be hurt too if the US sanctions South Africa.
Christo van der Rheede represented white farmers for years as head of the biggest agricultural organization in South Africa. He now leads the FW De Klerk Foundation, named for the former Afrikaans president who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for their roles in ending apartheid.
"It is now very important for all South Africans to unite and refute the statements by President Donald Trump…that Afrikaners are being killed and slaughtered and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated. This is simply not true," van der Rheede said after Trump's G20 announcement.
Bartlett’s description of Afrikaners who actually agree with Trump was distinctly frostier.
Despite the pushback from some segments of Afrikaans society, there are others who are fierce supporters of Trump and have welcomed his position on South Africa.
For years some Afrikaner groups have been travelling to the US pushing the "white genocide" narrative and lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
NPR’s Bartlett also accused Trump of spreading falsehoods on the subject during Ramaphosa's White House visit in May, while portraying South Africa's president as a pitiable victim of Trump. The rest of the press also considers it very important to deny anti-white bias in South Africa.
