LETTER FROM JOHANNESBURG

The small phrase might have gone unnoticed if it hadn't shattered a concept closely tied to the White House's recent attacks on South Africa. In a ruling handed down in mid-February, a South African magistrate described the notion of "white genocide" in the country as "clearly imagined." Used by certain supremacist groups, the expression refers to the idea that white farmers are disproportionately victims of violent murders compared to the rest of the South African population. It's a claim that has been debunked countless times but is once again making headlines.

Back in 2018, during his first term in office, Donald Trump expressed concern on Twitter about the "large scale killing of farmers" in South Africa. Now back in power, he signed a decree on 7 February terminating international aid to the country and granting refugee status to Afrikaners – the descendants of early Dutch, French and German settlers – while accusing the government of "fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners."

On March 7, the US president drove home the point by offering accelerated access to US citizenship to South African farmers "seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety." Responding to this offer, which echoes numerous tweets by South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, the president of Afrikaner nationalist lobby Afriforum, Kallie Kriel, said that Trump's "concern for the safety of farmers in South Africa" was "understandable." Kriel also claimed that South African president Cyril Ramaphosa "denie[d] the existence of farm murders, which in many cases involve torture."

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