South African officials and statistics rebut the U.S. claims, showing that violent crime disproportionately affects Black South Africans and that white farmers still own the majority of commercial farmland. Nevertheless, the White House messaging has persisted and prompted pushback from within the Afrikaner community.
More than 40 prominent Afrikaners — writers, journalists, musicians, academics and clergy — signed an open letter rejecting the depiction of Afrikaners as victims of racial persecution and refusing to be used to justify U.S. policy. The letter acknowledged the historical reality that Afrikaners and other settlers colonized the country and that apartheid, led by Afrikaner governments, denied the Black majority political rights. At the same time, the signatories said they participate in building a post-apartheid, multiracial South Africa and that portraying Afrikaners as the targets of a present-day racial campaign damages hard-won relationships. “We are not pawns in America’s culture wars,” the letter states.
Veteran Afrikaner journalist Max du Preez, one of the signatories, told NPR that American rhetoric has misused Afrikaner identity to advance the MAGA movement’s agenda. He rejected claims of a “white genocide,” said there is no state-sponsored race-based persecution, and noted that South Africa’s constitution protects all citizens. Du Preez added that no white-owned land has been taken since the country became a democracy in 1994 and urged the United States to stop promoting falsehoods.
Representatives from agricultural groups who work with white farmers have also warned that sanctions or boycotts would damage South African producers and could harm American business interests. Christo van der Rheede, who led the country’s largest agricultural organization and now heads the FW de Klerk Foundation, called for unity in rebutting the false narrative and cautioned that punitive measures based on misinformation would be counterproductive.
Not all Afrikaner groups agree with the open letter. Some organizations have embraced the claims about a “white genocide,” traveled to the U.S. to advance that narrative and lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The South African government responded to the U.S. decision with restraint. Chrispin Phiri, a spokesman for the Department of International Relations, said the Johannesburg summit will remain important even without American participation and suggested the absence would be more damaging to the U.S. than to the G20. European leaders are expected to attend and China’s Xi Jinping is also likely to be present. South Africa’s G20 theme — “solidarity, equality and sustainability” — has drawn criticism from some U.S. officials, who have portrayed the agenda as focused on diversity, equity and inclusion and climate policy.”}