US President Donald Trump has already gained notoriety for banning Muslim immigrants from entering the United States. While he received considerable backlash for his move, such castigation has not informed his perspective on immigration and refugees. Instead, it has further emboldened him to undertake measures such as granting ‘refugee’ status to white South Africans, including Afrikaners of Dutch ancestry. Many Afrikaners played a key role in implementing the racist, discriminatory, and fascist pre-1994 apartheid system in South Africa, which resulted in state-sponsored segregation, disenfranchisement, destruction, and violence against the indigenous Black population.

Apartheid was globally condemned and contributed to South Africa’s isolation on the global stage. However, the Trump administration continues to admit Afrikaners into the United States over fallacies that a ‘genocide’ is taking place against them by the Black majority African National Congress government.

Given that there is no evidence to back his claims, Trump’s policy constitutes crass racism, which is demeaning and deplorable. It is a brazen disregard of post-apartheid South Africa, which continues to confront the residual effects of apartheid, which disproportionately affect the Black population.

Does Trump Have a Case?

South Africa in the 21^st century is a multiethnic, multicultural, multiracial, and cosmopolitan democracy in Africa and its large economy and influence make it a regional power in Africa. However, underneath the veneer of diversity and progress, there's a legacy of apartheid that has throttled its socioeconomic fabric. The majority Black population of the country for example, continues to live in relative and abject poverty as compared to their White counterparts and the system of institutionalized racism that they had to endure from 1948 to 1994 has ensured that the ‘Rainbow Nation’ (a term coined by Bishop Desmond Tutu to refer to South Africa after apartheid), continues to be divided on racial lines.

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Additionally, extreme inequality exists between White and Black residents in South Africa, with racial groups such as the Afrikaners benefiting from excellent housing, educational, and commercial opportunities during the Apartheid regime, enabling them to dominate the country’s economic landscape. As per the 2022/2023 Household Income and Expenditure Survey of South Africa, Afrikaners earn nearly five times more than their Black counterparts and constitute the richest 10% of the South African population, which consists of Whites who control 71% of the country’s wealth. Also, in terms of land distribution, Afrikaners, along with other White South Africans, control 71% of the country’s entire farmland despite being less than 10% of the total population. In contrast, Black South Africans own much less.

The dominance of Afrikaners in the South African economy and their residence in affluent urban cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, Gqeberha, East London, Durban and Pretoria in 2025 clearly suggests that there is no state-sponsored ‘genocide’ taking place against them.  Factual evidence to the contrary also punctures the narrative promoted by the Trump administration that Afrikaners are being ethnically cleansed by the ANC government.

In fact, those suffering the most are Black South Africans who have been at the receiving end of South Africa’s prevailing inequalities during apartheid. This includes citizens who endured legislations such as the Group Areas Act of 1950, whereby the Afrikaner government designated specific areas for exclusive ownership and occupation to certain racial groups and the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 when the apartheid police opened fire on Black South Africans protesting against the pass laws, or an internal passport system imposed on different racial groups to restrict their movements and allocate low wage migrant labor.

Trump’s Proclivity Towards Afrikaners is Nothing but Institutionalized Racism

However, condemning Trump’s drive to allow Afrikaners to settle in the United States as refugees should not detract from the fact that many Afrikaners abhor apartheid and are not racist towards their Black counterparts. While racial tensions in South Africa do exist, different racial groups interact and assimilate with one another, with the Afrikaner population being no exception. This explains why many Afrikaners enjoying an affluent lifestyle in the country or otherwise have rebuffed Donald Trump’s proposal of settlement in the United States.  

Bizarre, White Supremacist Conspiracy Theories

The US President’s justification for this proposal is also bizarre. It is a theory that has been cited by many far-right white supremacist groups and politicians, including Peter Dutton of the center-right Liberal Party of Australia and former Senator Fraser Anning, who gained notoriety for pinning the blame on Muslim immigration as the reason for the 2019 Christchurch Mosque terrorist attack in New Zealand.

The allegation is that the predominantly Black ANC government in South Africa, which passed an expropriation law, is confiscating agricultural land from Afrikaners and redistributing it to the Black population. While the law has undoubtedly been operationalized across South Africa, there is no factual evidence to suggest that Afrikaner land is being confiscated or that there is a ‘genocide’ taking place. The implementation of the Expropriation Act has also had a limited impact on White Afrikaner groups, as they continue to hold more than 50% of South African land.

This policy is hence racist and only seeks to sow divisions in post-apartheid South Africa. Expectedly, the reaction from Pretoria has been harsh as throngs of Afrikaners enter the United States after Trump’s call. Instead of calling for reconciliation and sorting out differences internally, Trump has opted to promote white supremacy by inviting members of a certain race at the expense of others who are vilified as criminals, invaders, and terrorists.

In South Africa, however, there is little doubt that Trump’s move brazenly disregards the toxic legacy of apartheid, and with many Afrikaners espousing pro-Israel and pro-genocide views, the US President has once again established his reputation as a white supremacist.