President Trump has drawn international attention to a lesser-known humanitarian issue, the genocide of white South African citizens. While many in the media deny the situation, unofficial reports of the shocking brutality had grown so numerous that the United States could no longer remain uninvolved. During his meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, the president played a 1/2-hour video highlighting the horrifying and violent situation that has silently become reality for many farmers in South Africa.
While few official reports exist, leaked information and rumors have long indicated that white farmers in South Africa are being attacked, raped, and killed in an effort to confiscate farmland. The invasions have caused remaining white farmers to flee en masse, selling or abandoning their farms. Only half remain in the country from 20 years ago. The South African government denies the situation entirely.
The meeting comes the same week as the first assembly of refugees from the nation arrives in the United States. The group is known ethnically as ‘Afrikaners’ and are South African by culture and citizenship, albeit descendants of Dutch settlers who arrived in the country in 1652. They speak Afrikaans, a dialect originating in southern Holland that has become the third most commonly spoken language in South Africa. Fifty-nine such Afrikaners arrived at Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, this week to be processed as part of the US refugee resettlement program. President Ramaphosa has called their departure a “cowardly act.”
Trump adviser Elon Musk, a South African himself, was in attendance, having personal investment in the matter at hand. In previous statements, Musk has expressed dissatisfaction with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and recently passed legislation that he considers to be racist. The tech entrepreneur claimed the ongoing situation to be “a shameful disgrace to the legacy of the great Nelson Mandela, who sought to have all races treated equally in South Africa.” Mandela, of course, became the first black and the first democratically elected president of South Africa following a policy of racial apartheid adopted post-World War 2. It appears the current government may have overcorrected for sins of the past.
For his part, president Ramaphosa denies any racial violence playing out in South Africa, as well as any official anti-white governmental policy, despite the video he was played in the Oval Office. However, now that President Trump has brought the matter to public light, it will be thoroughly investigated, and action will be taken if necessary.
How do you feel about the acceptance of refugees from South Africa in the United States? Is there truly a genocide unfolding in the nation?
Hilary Gunn is a Connecticut native with a degree in Criminal Justice from the George Washington University. She works for a nonprofit and has previously collaborated with the CT GOP as an activist, political campaign manager and field director, and social media organizer. She is currently serving in her fourth term of municipal office and has previously acted as a delegate on the Republican Town Committee.