Fact-checking Donald Trump’s Oval Office confrontation with Cyril Ramaphosa

Donald Trump confronted President Cyril Ramaphosa throughout a tense trade within the White House on Wednesday, with a collection of contested claims in regards to the killings of white farmers in South Africa.

The assembly – at first heat and light-hearted – shortly modified tone as Trump requested his employees to play a video displaying opposition South African politicians calling for violence towards white farmers.

Trump additionally performed footage displaying rows of crosses, which he claimed was a burial web site for murdered white farmers, and introduced Ramaphosa with copies of articles which he mentioned documented widespread brutality towards South Africa’s white minority.

Supporters of the Trump administration have lengthy amplified claims of violence towards the white minority, notably Elon Musk and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who ran segments on the supposed genocide in the course of the president’s first time period. Some of those claims are demonstrably false.

The footage performed by Trump within the Oval Office confirmed rows of white crosses stretching off into the space alongside a rural street. Trump claimed: “These are burial websites proper right here. Burial websites. Over a thousand of white farmers.”

However, the crosses don’t mark graves. The video is from a protest towards the homicide of white farming couple Glen and Vida Rafferty, who have been ambushed and shot useless on their premises in 2020. The clip was shared on YouTube on 6 September, the day after the protests.

“It’s not a burial web site, nevertheless it was a memorial,” Rob Hoatson, one of the organisers of the event, told the BBC. He mentioned the crosses have been erected as a “non permanent memorial” to the couple.

Mr Hoatson mentioned the crosses have since been taken down.

BBC Verify has geolocated the footage to an space in KwaZulu-Natal province, close to the city of Newcastle. Google Street View imagery captured in May 2023 – virtually three years after the footage first appeared on-line – exhibits that the crosses have been not standing.

In the assembly, Trump mentioned: “Lots of people are very involved with regard to South Africa… we have now many individuals that really feel they’re being persecuted, and they’re coming to the US, so we take from many places if we really feel there’s persecution or genocide happening.”

He has beforehand made claims about “white genocide” a number of instances earlier than and seemed to be referring to that.

At a press briefing earlier this month he mentioned: “It’s a genocide that is happening” referring to killing of white farmers in South Africa.

The nation has one of many highest homicide charges on the planet. There have been 26,232 murders final 12 months, based on South African Police Service (SAPS) figures.

Of these, 44 have been killings of individuals throughout the farming group and of these, eight have been of farmers.

These figures should not damaged down by race in any public stats launch that we have been in a position to find – however they clearly do not present proof for the claims of “white genocide” made repeatedly by Trump.

In February, a South African choose dismissed the idea of a genocide as “clearly imagined” and “not actual”.

The Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU), which represents farmers, compiles figures which supply an perception into the racial id of the victims. The TAU depends on media stories, social media posts and stories from their members.

Their figures for final 12 months present there have been 23 white individuals killed in farm assaults, and 9 black individuals. So far this 12 months TAU has recorded three white individuals and 4 black individuals killed on South African farms.

During the tense assembly, Trump performed footage from political rallies through which contributors sang “Kill the Boer” – a controversial anti-apartheid music that critics say requires violence towards white farmers.

South African courts had categorised the music as hate speech, however current judgements have dominated that it may be legally sung at rallies as judges say it makes a political level and doesn’t immediately invoke violence.

Trump mentioned that these main the singing have been “officers” and “those that have been in workplace”.

One of the boys main the rally was Julius Malema, who beforehand led the ruling ANC’s youth wing. In 2012 he left the occasion and has by no means held an official authorities place. He now leads a celebration known as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) which received 9.5% in final 12 months’s election, coming into opposition towards the brand new multi-party coalition.

Responding to Trump’s accusations, Ramaphosa emphasised that the EFF is “a small minority occasion” and mentioned that “our authorities coverage is totally towards what he was saying”.

Another man within the video who will be heard singing the lyric “shoot the Boer” at a distinct rally is former President Jacob Zuma, who left workplace in 2018. The video is from 2012 when he was president. The ANC promised to cease singing the music shortly afterwards.

Zuma subsequently left the ANC and now leads the opposition uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) occasion, which received greater than 14% in final 12 months’s election.

During the assembly, Trump held up a collection of articles which he claimed confirmed proof of white farmer killings in South Africa.

There was a picture clearly seen as Trump spoke and mentioned: “Look, this is burial websites far and wide. These are all white farmers which can be being buried.”

But the picture is not from South Africa – it is truly from a report about ladies being killed within the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The French information company (AFP) initially identified the picture, and BBC Verify ran a search and confirmed it as being from a Reuters information company clip filmed within the DR Congo metropolis of Goma in February.