Elon Musk has echoed US President Donald Trump’s allegations that Pretoria mistreats Afrikaners
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed as a “completely false narrative” allegations that the white minority in his country is being persecuted. Such claims are intended to stir division among the population, he suggested, in an address to the nation on Monday.
Although he did not mention names, Ramaphosa’s statement came a day after tech billionaire Elon Musk reiterated an accusation that the government of South Africa, his country of birth, is “anti-white.”
Musk, a close ally and advisor to US President Donald Trump, wrote on X on Sunday that a “major political party in South Africa is actively promoting white genocide.” He also claimed that his Starlink satellite internet service cannot operate in the African country because he is “not black.”
In his weekly message on Monday, President Ramaphosa urged South Africans to “not allow events beyond our shores divide us or turn us against each other.”
“In South Africa today, all citizens, African, white, Indian and coloured, male and female, enjoy equal rights and freedoms that the state is obliged to uphold, protect and advance…As South Africans we should therefore reject the politics of divisiveness that is emerging in many parts of the world,” he stated.
Pretoria has been under pressure over alleged mistreatment of Afrikaners – descendants of mainly Dutch colonists – since Trump took office in January.
The US president recently halted all federal funding to South Africa over a controversial expropriation law, which Pretoria claims is intended to address historical racial disparities in land ownership. Trump has accused the government of seizing agricultural properties belonging to white South Africans. Afrikaners still own the majority of farmland, despite constituting only about 7% of the population.
Afrikaner NGOs AfriForum and Solidarity have lobbied in the US for support to oppose the legislation, claiming it violates property rights. They accuse President Ramaphosa’s party of irresponsible policies and statements that encourage discrimination and genocide against Afrikaners and other minorities.
The South African government has described the allegations as “misinformation.” Pretoria’s attempts to engage Washington have run into difficulties however, following the expulsion of South Africa’s ambassador to the US, after he criticized the Trump administration’s ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign.
