By Tim Cocks and Nellie Peyton
JOHANNESBURG -U.S. President Donald Trump made several false statements and misrepresented some facts about the alleged persecution of South Africa's white minority during a contentious Oval Office meeting on Wednesday with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa tried to rebuff the assertions but was frequently interrupted by Trump, who repeated the claims. Trump had staff play a video consisting mostly of years-old clips of inflammatory speeches by some South African politicians that have been circulating on social media.
Among the claims contradicted by the evidence:
1. There is a genocide of white farmers in South Africa.
This conspiracy theory has been propagated by some fringe groups of white South Africans since the end of apartheid in 1994. It has been circulating in global far-right chat rooms for at least a decade, with the vocal support of Trump's ally, South African-born Elon Musk.
Supporters of the theory point to murders of white farmers in remote rural parts of the country as proof of a politically orchestrated campaign of ethnic cleansing, rather than ordinary violent crime.
They accuse the Black-majority led government of being complicit in the farm murders, either by encouraging them or at least turning a blind eye. The government strongly denies this.
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