South African Mines and Trump’s ‘White Genocide’ Propaganda

In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are razing villages to the ground, and the guns have not fallen silent in the region. Sudan has been grappling with one of the world's largest humanitarian crises for two years now. While these two regions of Africa are struggling with real tragedies, US President Donald Trump is diverting attention with a fabricated genocide in South Africa.

This fiction is not just political; it is a strategic move: Trump is hiding his calculations for accessing South Africa's subterranean wealth – strategic minerals like platinum, chromium, lithium, and manganese – behind a discourse of "discrimination against whites."

The Theater of Manipulation

Last week, in the Oval Office, Trump hosted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and showed him a video he claimed documented the "genocide" against whites. Citing an article from the conservative magazine "American Thinker," he brought up the claim of "white farmers being buried." However, the truth was that these images were not from South Africa, but from the massacres committed by the M23 rebels in Congo – a conflict Trump himself ignores (or perhaps doesn't even know where it is).

These scenes, showing humanitarian aid teams collecting corpses left behind by M23 in the city of Goma, were deliberately presented incorrectly. This move was a clear attempt at political manipulation targeting South Africa.

The same Trump offers unconditional support for a real genocide unfolding before the world's eyes in Gaza. Although both African authorities and independent experts have repeatedly debunked the "white genocide" claims with field data and statistics, Trump continues to use the concept of "genocide" – which the UN defines as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" – as a cheap propaganda tool.

Trump’s Old Obsession Back on Stage

South Africa's complaint against Israel at the International Court of Justice for genocide caused discomfort in Washington, and Trump used this opportunity to revive an old propaganda.

In early May, the admission of 59 white South Africans into the US under a special refugee program previously initiated by Trump became the current reflection of this narrative. However, this claim is not new. Back in 2018, Trump had ignited a similar debate using "land grabs" and "farm murders" against whites in South Africa.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had reacted sharply to these interventionist statements at the time, said, "When blacks were fighting apartheid, Trump was nowhere to be seen."

Although the Trump administration did not resort to direct sanctions in those years, it exerted indirect pressure by making it more difficult for South Africans to obtain US visas.

Today, the aforementioned Expropriation Act in South Africa is a reform package aimed at correcting the injustices inherited from the apartheid era. Yet Trump, just as in the past, is distorting this legal framework and turning it into a tool of pressure to discredit South Africa internationally.

The History of Land Reform: Traces of Injustice

In South Africa, where 82% of its land consists of arable land, during the apartheid era, agricultural land was allocated only to whites, while the land acquisition rights of the indigenous Black population were severely restricted by the "Land Act" enacted in 1913.

This law virtually ignored the land rights of the Black population, leading to only 7% of agricultural land being allocated to the Black population. By the time the apartheid regime ended in 1994, white farmers owned over 77% of the agricultural land.

Although the goal by 2014 was to redistribute 30% of white-owned land to Black farmers, as of 2025, approximately 44,000 white farmers still own 61% of the country's agricultural land.

This picture reflects not only the injustice of the past but also of the present. While the Expropriation Act is seen as a belated step to correct the current injustice, it is being distorted in the international public sphere by Trump.

Geopolitical Calculations and the Resource War

The Trump administration's approach to South Africa is not limited to rhetoric. The threat of cutting off support funds, such as health aid, is part of a policy to corner South Africa economically. Similarly, multi-billion dollar environmental funding mechanisms like the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), which South Africa is part of, are also in Trump's sights.

The threat of removal from the AGOA program, which allows South Africa to export products duty-free to the US, means direct economic pressure. Interestingly, most of the products exported under AGOA belong to the very white farmers Trump is trying to "protect." In short, the "genocide" discourse is highly contradictory and politically motivated.

South Africa's role in BRICS, its close relations with China, Russia, and Iran, and its refusal to back down from its law-based stance against Israel are among the reasons behind Trump's harsh stance. But the real target is much more concrete: subsoil resources.

Resource Access: The Geopolitical Shield of White Privilege

South Africa possesses 80% of the world's platinum group metals and 70% of chromium reserves. It also holds minerals critical for the green transition and defense industries, such as lithium, manganese, and titanium. However, commercial and strategic control over these resources lies largely with China. Beijing's dominance in mineral chains is powerful enough to threaten the West's own green energy transition.

This situation deeply disturbs Washington. Indeed, Tesla's 34% increase in platinum imports from South Africa in 2023 reveals the US effort to break this dependency.

Therefore, Trump's revival of the "white genocide" claims today, as in the past, is a result not only of racist reflexes but also of economic calculations. Whites still dominate South Africa's mining sector. Thus, Trump's discursive support for this segment is not merely ideological. This support appears to be part of a bargaining strategy conducted over resources.

The New Name of Resistance: Africa

Today, South Africa has become an actor influencing global balances not only with its mineral resources but also with its commitment to international law and its vision of a "multipolar world." President Ramaphosa's statement in his recent meeting with Trump, "We are offering these minerals to you," is a sign that the country is no longer an "aid recipient" but an equal bargaining actor.

Trump's "genocide" lies are not just manipulation; they are a move to break China's mineral hegemony, protect white interests, and punish Africa's independent stance.

But Africa is no longer submitting; it is resisting. We are faced with a determined continent that defends its own interests against the new faces and forms of colonialism and distorted discourses, acting with historical consciousness.

 

This article was originally published in Independent Türkçe, on May 28,2025.

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