South African white genocide does not exist, new ambassador to US tells BBC

ByIone Wells, Mayeni Jones and Ed Habershon.

Key points

• Since last year, almost 13, 000 refugees were admitted to the United States and all but three were South African.
• Meyer was one of the chief mediators to end white-minority rule known as apartheid in South Africa in the 1990s.
• "To use the metaphor of a cake, 30, 40 years ago the white people of South Africa controlled the cake, " he notes.
• When he first heard President Trump say it, "Is he talking about us?", Roelf Meyer remembers thinking.
• In an official note to the BBC, a White House spokeswoman remarked: President Trump has provided a lifeline for Afrikaners.

South Africa's new ambassador to Washington has a personal reason to challenge Donald Trump's assertion that there is a genocide against white Afrikaners – he is "a born Afrikaner" himself.

When he first heard President Trump say it, "Is he talking about us?", Roelf Meyer remembers thinking. His response to the US president's claim is blunt.

Notably, the notion of a mass attack on the white Afrikaner minority in South Africa does not exist, he informed the BBC, adding that his identity provided him the legitimacy to say so.

Meyer was one of the chief mediators to end white-minority rule known as apartheid in South Africa in the 1990s. After diplomatic relations between the US and South Africa plummeted, he was appointed ambassador to the US in April.

In an interview with the BBC, Meyer remarked the facts concerning violence in South Africa had been misrepresented and he never obtained a clear answer concerning where this "misdirection of information" was coming from.

Last year, Trump accused South Africa of white genocide in a session with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House and rolled out a US refugee pathway for Afrikaners.

Among them was Lielie, the name she uses publicly. This person moved with her family to Texas from South Africa, where they had lived on her stepfather's farm, growing macadamia nuts and bananas.

Despite walls around the house, an electric fence, and eight bull terriers, she remarked she felt "fear the whole time" and that on three occasions she saw residents entering her property.

"Nothing was stolen, we weren't harmed, but there are friends of my husband, people that lived around us, they were brutally attacked, " she remarked.

She remarked since moving to the US under the Trump administration's refugee pathway her life had changed, she felt safer walking around, and "my kids can actually play outside".

For context, the Trump administration is planning to admit up to 17, 500 extra white Afrikaners as refugees over the next 12 months, according to a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday.

In an official note to the BBC, a White House spokeswoman remarked: President Trump has provided a lifeline for Afrikaners. This person are being raped, maimed, killed and driven off their property throughout South Africa.

"While the South African government and many in the media have brushed off the horrific lived experiences of this community, the Trump administration continues to process applications for refugee status because the president has a humanitarian heart."

SJ Du Venage, who lives on South Africa's west coast, has been trying to move to the US under the new scheme.

Du Venage is a council member of the Freedom Front Plus, a right-wing Afrikaner party, and argues that there is a "political drive towards killing white people, and killing the farmers on the farms". "There's absolutely an agenda to wipe us out here, " he notes.

Race policies or Israel – what's really driving Trump's fury with South Africa? Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?

Do Afrikaners want to take Trump up on his South African refugee offer?

In practice, an Afrikaner lobby group is holding a vigil on Saturday with thousands of white crosses on Washington's National Mall to commemorate what it notes are victims of "farm attacks".

Claims of genocide against white South Africans have been discredited by every political party in the country, including by those representing Afrikaners.

"I'm an Afrikaner from South Africa myself, " Ambassador Meyer remarked, "and I can say that I've never experienced something of that kind."

Meyer remarked he would like to have a conversation with Trump concerning the reality of the situation, saying that as a "born Afrikaner", he has the "legitimacy" to speak regarding the subject.

Notably, the ambassador supported negotiate an end to apartheid on behalf of the National Party. It was responsible for it, with now-president Cyril Ramaphosa additionally a key negotiator for the African National Congress party.

He remarked the "trust" between the two men was one reason President Ramaphosa appointed him to help mend US-South Africa relations, as well as "the fact he additionally saw the value of me being an Afrikaner". "But I'm not here to represent the Afrikaner only, " Meyer notes.

Last week, the Trump administration confirmed visa restrictions for those South Africans who it stated were responsible for "race-based discrimination" against white individuals. It additionally cautioned of further punitive actions if South African leaders did not address the matter.

Police data demonstrates most of victims of crime in South Africa, including on farms, are black. Farm violence, often motivated by robberies, is an matter but represents a smaller number of homicides in the country.

While no politician disputes that crime is a difficulty in South Africa, numerous experts say this does not qualify as "persecution".

Larry Bartlett, the former director of the US Refugee Assistance Programme, remarked it could even be "unlawful" to appropriate a programme defined in law for residents who "really have no chance to go home".

He remarked white residents who were unlikely to qualify as refugee in law were taking scarce opportunities meant for those fleeing war or ethnic cleansing. The programme has its critics among Afrikaners in South Africa too.

"Why single out the white Afrikaner to say this group qualifies to flee to the US? This country suffers gender-based violence. Why not single out women?" Rudi Swanepoel, a pastor from Johannesburg informed the BBC.

Swanepoel thinks it is not persecution but a "loss of privilege" that is causing some Afrikaners to feel aggrieved.

"To use the metaphor of a cake, 30, 40 years ago the white people of South Africa controlled the cake, " he notes. "Since democracy came, the obvious reality was we had to now start sharing that cake and those privileges."

Alongside "rural safety", the Trump administration has raised other reservations concerning South Africa, including targets for firms to rise non-white employment and a law allowing the state, in exceptional circumstances, to expropriate land without compensation. These are aimed at redressing historic racial inequality.

Meyer wants Trump's executive order against South Africa. It underpins the refugee pathway, revoked.

He remarked South Africa had never prevented residents from leaving and had addressed all the US reservations, stressing that the land expropriation law is awaiting a court judgement.

"South Africa has challenges with the prevention of crime and with the combatting of crime, " he remarked.

But he continued: "It's a challenge all around. It's not rural. It's not farm attacks only. If you look at the total picture, the massive levels of crime in the black townships of South Africa are the biggest concern, proportionally, far more than anything else."

He remarked he would encourage the US to assist South Africa with resources on combatting crime, including by providing equipment to speed up reaction times.

Meyer additionally has a message for Afrikaners protesting against "farm attacks" by laying white crosses in Washington.

In short, south African white genocide does not exist, new ambassador to US tells is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.