ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has slammed Donald Trump's latest comments about the so-called white genocide in South Africa.
Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers
African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has launched a scathing attack on US President Donald Trump, following his latest unsubstantiated remarks about a “white genocide” in South Africa.
Trump used a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday night to update supporters on his controversial refugee programme that serves South African Afrikaners.
“We stopped third-world migration. We suspended all refugee resettlement except for persecuted South Africans. They’re being persecuted in South Africa,” Trump told supporters.
“There’s a very horrible thing going on in South Africa. It’s a genocide. It’s a horrible thing. And we made it possible for these people to come into our country. They kill people if they’re white. If you’re a white person.”
In response, Mbalula slammed Trump’s “racist” framing of black people.
“The subtle message that Trump is saying is that black people are savages who kill with impunity. The racist trope that we are uncivilised and animal-like as a race is what AfriForum has peddled, and now Trump is reinforcing in his messaging,” Mbalula said.
“The world is on our side in pushing back against this distortion, disinformation and racist branding of black people. There is no genocide against white people in South Africa.
“Black people are the ones who, throughout history — from the slave trade, Jim Crow and apartheid to modern economic exclusion — have faced the brunt of a system designed to strip them first of their dignity and ultimately their humanity. I will always call out this lie every time it is peddled,” he added.
Trump's claims of a so-called “white genocide” in South Africa have been widely rejected by government officials, analysts and crime experts, who say there is no evidence of a coordinated or racially targeted campaign against white South Africans. Crime statistics indicate that violent crime affects all communities, with the majority of victims being black South Africans.
Authorities and commentators have cautioned that such claims distort the country’s broader challenges with violent crime and risk inflaming racial tensions both domestically and internationally.
IOL News