South Africa crime statistics debunk 'white genocide' claims

[ad_1] South Africa's newest crime statistics debunk claims {that a} genocide is being dedicated towards white folks, the nation's police minister has stated.

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

Trump advised Ramaphosa that white farmers in South Africa had been being killed and "persecuted".

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

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

Mchunu stated that within the earlier quarter, from October to December 2024, 12 murders on farms had been recorded. One of many 12 - a farm proprietor - was white.

It's the first time that South Africa's crime statistics have been damaged down by race, however Mchunu stated he had achieved so on account 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 stated.

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 Home on Wednesday in an try to 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 had been "victims of unjust racial discrimination".

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

The BBC discovered that this "proof" contained quite a few falsehoods.

"We've got respect for the US as a rustic, we have now respect for the folks in that nation and for President Trump, however we have now no respect for the genocide story. It's completely unfounded and unsubstantiated," Mchunu stated on Friday.

A spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Workplace additionally condemned Trump's feedback.

"These are very severe points. One mustn't use this phrase [genocide] casually with out deep information of what this implies. Trying 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 drawback.

Nonetheless, he added that each one sections of society had 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 legislation 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 legislation 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 because the racist system of apartheid ended.

Relations between South Africa and the US have slumped since Trump took workplace in January. In addition to providing asylum to Afrikaners, the US chief has reduce help to South Africa and expelled its ambassador.