By Simon Nare
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has debunked US President Donald Trump’s “evidence” of South African white genocide. It is a picture of crosses alongside a road, which were presented as graves of white people whose deaths were racially motivated.
Speaking during a briefing on the quarterly crime statistics in Pretoria on Friday, the minister provided clarity on the crosses which he said were put alongside a road between Newcastle and Normandien in KwaZulu-Natal. They were in solidarity with a farmer and his wife who were killed on their farm at Hanover in 2020.
Mchunu said the crosses were not grave marks of farmers killed as presented by Trump.
During a meeting with a South African delegation led by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, Trump presented pictures of the crosses as a graveside of white farmers killed in what he termed as genocide.
In response to the ambush, Ramaphosa asked whether Trump if he had been informed which part of South Africa this was as it was the first time he was seeing the “graveside”.
“The picture of many crosses on both sides of a dirt road between Newcastle and Normandien in KZN, flows from a Normandien registered case 19/08/2020, where the incident occurred on 2020/09/30, on Hanover farm. It is a sad story of Mr G Rafferty and Mrs VL Rafferty – they were sadly murdered by criminals in their home.
“The incident sparked a very strong protest by the farming community. The crosses symbolised killings on farms over years, they are not graves. Three suspects were arrested and sentenced for their murder, and they are in jail,” he said.
Further, Mchunu said the arrests and convictions were proof that police were taking action against such crimes instead of not doing anything as Trump suggested in the meeting.
National police commissioner General Fanie Masemola said in his presentation that one of the suspects used to work on the farm from a young age. He led his accomplices to rob the farmer of money he had seen over the years in a safe.
Masemola said this was revealed to the police by the suspect and this was proof that the motive was robbery and not racially motivated.
Mchunu said he has been following in the past few days’ conversations around crime in the country and how it has shifted and was now termed genocide.
The minister said crime, particularly the killing of white farmers, had been highlighted whereas the black people were the most killed even on the farms.
He added that even in the previous quarter from 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2025, six people were in farm attacks and one white person was killed.
He added that the person killed was a farm dweller and not a farmer.
Mchunu revealed that after complaining about how the SAPS downplayed farm attacks, civil rights group AfriForum had conceded upon its return from the US earlier this year that it had the same stats as the polce.
“It is claimed that there is white genocide in South Africa, and as evidence, a lot of material has been put into circulation, including in the White House in the USA. These materials include pictures of crosses along a particular road, to name a few.
“We have respect for the USA as a country, we have respect for the people in that country and for President Trump, but we have no respect for this genocide story – at all. It is totally unfounded and unsubstantiated,” he said.
The minister said there was no denying that levels of crime were high in the country and police were intensifying their fight against criminals.
He said the stats from the previous quarter showed police were making progress and have been encouraged to fight harder.
He said the crime statistics were based on crimes that were reported and there was a decline in various categories of crime.
It was noteworthy that there was more crime in terms of daily lived experience and a feeling of vulnerability.
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