Senzo Mchunu: South Africa crime statistics debunk ‘white genocide’ claims

South Africa’s newest crime statistics debunk claims {that a} genocide is being dedicated in opposition to white folks, the nation’s police minister has mentioned.

The extensively discredited allegation was amplified by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, in a rare assembly along with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa.

Trump informed Ramaphosa that white farmers in South Africa have been being killed and “persecuted”.

On Friday, South African Police Minister Senzo Mchunu mentioned that between January and March, 5 out of the six folks killed on farms have been black and one was white.

The white sufferer lived on a farm, whereas the black individuals who have been killed comprised two farm house owners, two workers and one supervisor.

Mchunu mentioned that within the earlier quarter, from October to December 2024, 12 murders on farms have been recorded. One of the 12 – a farm proprietor – was white.

It is the primary time that South Africa’s crime statistics have been damaged down by race, however Mchunu mentioned he had finished so because of the latest genocide claims.

“The historical past of farm murders within the nation has all the time been distorted and reported in an unbalanced means,” he mentioned.

In February, a South African decide dismissed the concept of a genocide as “clearly imagined” and “not actual”, when ruling in an inheritance case involving a rich benefactor’s donation to a white supremacist group.

Claims of genocide in South Africa have been circulating for years, catching the eye of right-wing teams within the US.

Ramaphosa visited the White House on Wednesday in an try and reset the international locations’ relations after Trump granted asylum to almost 60 Afrikaners – descendants of primarily Dutch settlers who arrived within the seventeenth Century – saying they have been “victims of unjust racial discrimination”.

During the assembly, which was broadcast reside, Trump ambushed Ramaphosa with movies and pictures meant to help his declare of a white genocide.

The BBC found that this “evidence” contained numerous falsehoods.

“We have respect for the US as a rustic, now we have respect for the folks in that nation and for President Trump, however now we have no respect for the genocide story. It is completely unfounded and unsubstantiated,” Mchunu mentioned on Friday.

A spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office additionally condemned Trump’s feedback.

“These are very severe points. One shouldn’t use this phrase [genocide] casually with out deep data of what this implies. Looking on the historical past of South Africa, it’s wholly inappropriate,” Ravina Shamdasani is quoted by the AFP information company as saying.

South Africa has one of many highest homicide charges on the earth and Mchunu acknowledged that crime was an enormous downside.

However, he added that every one sections of society have been affected.

The minister additionally rejected allegations, repeated by Trump, that authorities was expropriating land held by white farmers.

Earlier this 12 months, Ramaphosa signed a controversial regulation which allowed the federal government to grab privately owned land with out compensation in some circumstances. The South African authorities says no land has been seized but below the act.

The regulation follows years of requires land reform in South Africa, the place the white minority possess the overwhelming majority of privately held land and wealth within the nation, greater than 30 years for the reason that racist system of apartheid ended.

Relations between South Africa and the US have slumped since Trump took workplace in January. As effectively as providing asylum to Afrikaners, the US chief has minimize assist to South Africa and expelled its ambassador.