South Africa’s New US Ambassador Rejects Trump’s White Genocide Claims

South Africa’s new ambassador to Washington, Roelf Meyer, has directly challenged President Trump’s claims of a genocide against white Afrikaners, telling the BBC: “The notion of a mass attack on the white Afrikaner minority in South Africa does not exist.”

Meyer, himself “a born Afrikaner” who was one of the chief mediators to end apartheid in the 1990s, said his identity gave him the legitimacy to dispute Trump’s assertions. He was appointed ambassador in April after diplomatic relations between the US and South Africa plummeted.

Meyer told the BBC he never received a clear answer about where this “misdirection of information” was coming from, and that the facts about violence in South Africa had been misrepresented.

Last year, Trump accused South Africa of white genocide at a White House meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa and launched a US refugee pathway for Afrikaners. Since then, nearly 13,000 refugees have been admitted to the United States, almost all South African.

Some Afrikaner refugees said they fled out of genuine fear. Lielie, who moved with her family to Texas from their South African farm, said she felt “fear the whole time” on the property but acknowledged nothing was stolen and her family was not harmed.