White supremacist ideology and false claims that South Africa’s Afrikaner minority is being racially persecuted pose a threat to the country’s sovereignty and national security, the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has warned.
Since taking office for his second US presidential term in January, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that South Africa’s government is seizing land and encouraging violence against white farmers.
“Some in our society still adhere to notions of racial superiority and seek to maintain racial privilege,” Ramaphosa said on Monday at a conference of his African National Congress (ANC) party, which is the largest in South Africa’s governing coalition and has led every national government since the first post-apartheid democratic elections in 1994.
He continued: “The vehement opposition by some groups to our policies of transformation and redress conveniently align with wider notions of white supremacy and white victimhood, fed by false claims of the persecution of white Afrikaners in our country. The propaganda of these false claims has real implications for our sovereignty, international relations and national security.”
Trump and the South African-born billionaire Elon Musk have promoted the false claim that there is a “white genocide” in South Africa, bringing what was previously a niche, far-right conspiracy theory to a far wider audience.
Without naming either man, Ramaphosa said in his speech: “It is essential that we...
White supremacist ideology and false claims that South Africa’s Afrikaner minority is being racially persecuted pose a threat to the country’s sovereignty and national security, the country’s pres...