Other images displayed by Trump during meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa were false or misleading
The evidence of supposed mass killings of white South Africans presented by Donald Trump in a tense White House meeting on Wednesday were in some cases images from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while footage shown during the meeting was falsely portrayed as depicting “burial sites”.
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by a picture during the contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The picture accompanying the article was in fact a screengrab of a video published by Reuters on 3 February and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot after deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
While Trump is definitely exaggerating what’s happening there, I think you’re downplaying it a bit too much.
There were multiple videos, but the concerning part here is it looks like even in recent rallies Julius Malema has continued with this chant: https://web.archive.org/web/20250502020122/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/world/africa/south-africa-kill-boer-song.html
It is ridiculous that there were no dates/locations for anything in these clips given what Trump is trying to claim here.
Yes, but it’s worth pointing out that the EFF is still one of the more popular parties. The 3rd or 4th largest party from what I can tell based on this list (and from what other articles have mentioned). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_South_Africa
It is good to hear that someone like him is increasingly being sidelined.
Thanks for pointing out the court case. After a little digging it looks like the court has ruled on this more than once. Back in 2011 they found him guilty of hate speech for the chant: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-malema/south-africa-court-finds-malema-guilty-of-hate-speech-idUSTRE78B2DD20110912/
And in 2022 the courts ruled that the chant should not be taken literally.
That chant when coupled with statements to his supporters such as “never be afraid to kill” is still alarming.
It reeks of “it was just a joke, bro” energy and what fascists try to do when they are testing the waters.
As I said, the song was a really big deal when it happened, there was a massive outcry. I believe the incident took place in 2013, the year Malema founded his party. His platform absolutely runs on hatred of white people, and this was a way for him to gain political relevance.
The objections to Malema singing the song went through the courts, as they should, and Malema had to go all the way to the Supreme Court of Appeal. (The final judgement is from 2024.) I would assume that he sang it again after that but honestly try to ignore him as much as possible.
However, there was no point in Trump showing videos of Malema to the South African delegation. They had nothing to do with it. In fact, the ANC promised in 2012 never to sing that protest song again (it was originally one of their protest songs).
More importantly, this video is not evidence of a white genocide, past, present, or planned.
Edit to add: The reality is that there is a notable segment of the population that is angry. The economy is bad, unemployment is crazy high, electricity is insufficient (load shedding is a disaster), violent crime remains high, etc. It’s easier for them to keep blaming white people than acknowledge that it’s been 30 years of black rule now. Malema is a symptom of these issues. A meaningful discussion around this topic would have been valuable, but that’s not what Trump did.