The real SA genocide isn't the one Trump falsely promotes

Only one farmer was killed in three months - but 294 people died in gang killings. Just imagine if the US welcomed the traumatised survivors. By Caryn Dolley

- Caryn Dolley

There are constant reports of gang killings and gunshot wounds in the Western Cape.

The long-standing bloodshed has been informally described as a genocide — a word that now, for very different reasons, binds US President Donald Trump to South Africa.

Whataboutism can come across as a lazy way to argue a point. Some residents don’t have water — but what about those without electricity?

You catch the drift. But still.

On Monday, 12 May, the US welcomed a group of 59 Afrikaners from South Africa — self-styled refugees. The US Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, had warm words for them and cold words for the South African authorities.

“They tell quite harrowing stories of the violence that they faced in South Africa that was not redressed by the authorities, by the unjust application of the law...

“This is a group that has ... experienced violence and really fear for their lives in South Africa,” he said. “They were really subject to very serious, egregious and targeted threats, and we wish them well in their journey in the United States.”

During a question-and-answer session with reporters, Landau also said: “These people have been living under a shadow of violence and terror for some time now.”

The SA-to-US trek was, of course, a result of Trump's executive order in February, which cut off aid to South Africa and offered refuge to “Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination”.

In a video posted to the White House’s YouTube account the day the Afrikaners landed in the US, Trump dug in about South Africa. He told reporters: “It’s a genocide that’s taking place and you people don’t want to write about it... Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white.

“Whether they're white or black makes no difference to me, but white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.”