{"id":824487,"date":"2025-05-16T18:08:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T16:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=824487"},"modified":"2025-05-19T18:14:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T16:14:02","slug":"trump-snipes-south-africa-ahead-of-ramaphosas-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/824487\/trump-snipes-south-africa-ahead-of-ramaphosas-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump snipes South Africa ahead of Ramaphosa’s visit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

US President Donald Trump for the second time in a week accused South Africa of perpetrating a genocide against White people \u2014 without any proof \u2014 just days before he is set to receive the country\u2019s leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, in the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe treat people very well when we see there\u2019s a genocide going on,\u201d Trump told reporters on board Air Force One, responding to a question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, if it\u2019s a genocide, that\u2019s terrible, and I happen to believe it could very well be. South Africa\u2019s out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comments came after the US welcomed dozens of White Afrikaners as refugees, claiming they are a persecuted minority \u2014 a designation Ramaphosa and his government dispute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and his South Africa-born billionaire backer Elon Musk have both repeatedly spread the conspiracy theory that South Africa is orchestrating a genocide against White Afrikaner farmers and seizing their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, in response to a question about prioritizing Afrikaners over refugees fleeing famine and conflict, Trump said, \u201cIt\u2019s a genocide that\u2019s taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week Grok<\/a>, the artificial intelligence chatbot from Musk\u2019s xAI, also spread the conspiracy theory, randomly replying to unrelated user queries with claims of a genocide against White South Africans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk and the company blamed<\/a> the glitch on an \u201cunauthorized modification.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US has objected to a land bill that Ramaphosa signed late last year that will make it easier for the government to expropriate private property if it\u2019s in the public interest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While similar to eminent domain laws in the US, the law in South Africa allows for expropriation without compensation in certain cases such as land that\u2019s been abandoned and state-owned property not in use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been no official land seizures in South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994, while police statistics show young Black men bear the brunt of violent crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa has repeatedly denied that any group is being persecuted and insisted that property can only be taken within the confines of the constitution.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa\u2019s visit to the US and talks with Trump on May 21 \u201cprovides a platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries,\u201d according to his office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s going to be a big opportunity for us and President Ramaphosa to dispel some of the misinformation and myths that have been spread in the US about what\u2019s happening in South Africa,\u201d said John Steenhuisen, who leads the Democratic Alliance, the second-largest party in the country\u2019s ruling alliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis nonsense about genocide, this nonsense about mass expropriation of properties. It is simply not true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parks Tau, South Africa\u2019s trade minister, is leading efforts to put together a mutually acceptable trade deal to present to Trump to ensure the country isn\u2019t hit with punitive tariffs that make its goods uncompetitive, Steenhuisen, who also serves as agriculture minister, told reporters near Bothaville in the central Free State province.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump for the second time in a week accused South Africa of perpetrating a genocide against White people \u2014 without any proof \u2014 just days before he is set to receive the country\u2019s leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, in the White House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":811928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1293,10849,3659],"class_list":["post-824487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-donald-trump","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824707,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824487\/revisions\/824707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}