In this episode of Editorial, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses the allegation made by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding ‘white genocide’ in South Africa. During an official visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the White House, Trump played an audio-visual clip which he claimed depicted white genocide. President Ramaphosa has denied these allegations.
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[00:00:00] Namaskar! Welcome to another episode of Editorial. This time around, the President of South Africa was invited to the Oval Office. The President of South Africa, Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa was invited to the Oval Office.
[00:00:21] And, what has now become a style statement of the American President Donald Trump, he called him over and ambushed him. He accused him of white genocide. Now, are white farmers being killed in South Africa?
[00:00:43] The answer is yes. So, before we form an opinion about this entire situation, let us understand it, let us deep dive into it. And then, let us ask a few questions and then you decide what is right and what is wrong as usual. Let's get right to the show.
[00:01:05] Okay, so, this has become a new spectacle in Oval Office. Ambush! Humiliating other state heads. This has become a Donald Trump style. Now, before we say it is right, wrong and otherwise, let us understand what happened and why he did what he did and all of that. Let us first understand that and then we will draw our conclusion.
[00:01:30] So, it is like that the President of South Africa was invited to the Oval Office. And, in front of the entire media glare, the President of the United States Donald Trump asked his staff to dim the light and he showed a video.
[00:01:51] He showed a video of white farmers being killed or white farmers, some local extremist leaders there going and kind of campaigning to kill white farmers, to take away their land. He showed graves of white farmers.
[00:02:13] He showed all of that to the President of South Africa, Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa and asked Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa what the hell is this? This is white genocide. Mind you, all of this is not in a closed door. In front of the entire media. Achha! Not just that. That was not the end of it. You know like that, Aapki Adalat.
[00:02:42] Like Rajat Sharma goes in front of that, you know, the person he is interviewing or whatever, whatever. Where he says, a document they go, a document they go, a document they go. Even Trump did the same. Trump kind of made a bunch of copies of lot of articles that he had gathered and he showed one after another article after another article to Mr. Ramaphosa. And said what is this?
[00:03:09] This is all pointing towards white genocide and you are knowing nothing about it. Ramaphosa, unlike Mr. Zelensky, was a slightly more matured politician. At least he looked that way. He was calm and his answers were more measured.
[00:03:34] Possibly that ensured that the entire situation didn't go out of hand like it went with Zelensky. We will come to the situation first but let us understand first whether what Trump said was it actually all wrong, all false. The answer is no. The answer is no. What he said, what he spoke about of white farmers being killed for their land?
[00:04:04] The answer is yes, they have been killed for their land. Have they been killed by Africans? Black Africans? Yes, they have been killed by black people. So, to that extent, it is right. But can you therefore call it white genocide? Ah, now that's where exaggeration comes into play. Because if you go by reports from South Africa.
[00:04:34] Reports from South Africa says that the country between April 2024 to December 2024 saw 19,696 murders. Out of which 36 murders, only 36 murders were related to agricultural holdings.
[00:04:56] Not enough, it was only 36 murders which is actually 0.2% of the total murders that happened were related to agricultural holdings. The rest were for some other miscellaneous reasons. Secondly, what they also claim is 29 out of these 36 victims included farm employees. And all of them, most of them were black.
[00:05:24] So, they say, where, what genocide are you talking about? What genocide are you talking about? 36 people killed, out of which 29 are not farm owners, they are farm workers. So, 7 are farm owners out of the 36 people. So, what are we talking about? DK. Chalo. This is one part of the data.
[00:05:46] In another data, in another data, they say that, overall, last year, there were 27,000 murders. We spoke about April to December. Over all last year, there were 27,000 murders and only 1% murder. In fact, less than 1% murder were that of whites. Now, it is not necessary that all of these are related to land holdings. It's not necessary.
[00:06:13] Again, the question that South Africa tends to ask is, what are you talking about? Where is the white genocide? Now, just to understand the basic population dynamics of South Africa, 80% of South Africans are black. 8% are white. This is how the population composition goes.
[00:06:36] Now, the South African government says that 8% white may only 1% of the total murders that happens are white murder. And the rest are all black people who are killed in various incidents. So, where is the white genocide? Now, that being said, I still say, one, half, whatever.
[00:07:02] If a man is murdered, if an individual is murdered, if a human being is murdered, it has to be condemned. Whether that is white, whether that is black, it has to be condemned. And especially, if you are murdering a person because he is white and he owns the land, then that too is very, very sad. And it is condemnable. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. And there is no justification to that.
[00:07:26] But let me also talk to you about one more fact and figure which needs the world's attention, which the President of United States, Mr. Donald Trump, didn't speak about. Now, that figure is as follows. You see, the total land ownership figures in South Africa are as follows.
[00:07:49] 72% of the land, agriculture land is owned by the white South African. 72% of the land. Like I said, 80% of people are blacks, 8% of people are white, and 8% of these whites own 72% of the land in South Africa.
[00:08:12] Africans own 4%, Kaled owned 15%, Indians own 5%, others 3%, co-owned 1%. This is how the land is divided. 72% is owned by 8% population. Now, does that make killing a white for his land, right? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
[00:08:39] But what South Africa should seriously think and do is what India did decades back. And that is the land sealing act. Land cannot be hoarded by a few individuals. There has to be an opportunity for people to have a piece of land of their own. So, this is something that seriously needs to be considered.
[00:09:06] So, before calling it a white genocide and all of that, I think the advice that the world should be giving South Africa is to go the Indian model of land sealing act. When an individual cannot own more than X amount of land, whoever you are, you may be from the royal family, but you still can't own more than X amount of percentage of land.
[00:09:30] And that helps you, that helps you to ensure that there is no, this is kind of weird divide. This kind of weird divide. So, this is the point I wanted to make. So, coming back, Trump called Rama Fosa and humiliated him. Like I said, he tackled it well.
[00:09:56] But, pray tell me what gives Trump these kind of powers to just call state heads, humiliate them. Is he kind of doing this all under the garb of trade? Is he doing all of this to show that United States and he himself is the most powerful man in the world? Is he doing it to show that he is the king of the world? Is that what he is talking about? Is that what he is doing?
[00:10:26] And do you think acts like this will last long? You think world is just going to keep quiet and surrender to a man like this? Who do you think is going to ultimately suffer? Don't you think the people who are going to ultimately suffer would be the people of America? Calling Zelensky, humiliating him. Calling Cyril Rama Fosa, humiliating him.
[00:10:53] You see, you have all the right to put up your points. You are a state head. You are the president of United States of America. No doubt you are one of the most powerful men in the world. But the fact is there is something called as protocol. There is something called as basic decency. There is something called as basic decency. There is a conference room. There is a door. You close that door. You call these people. Talk to them.
[00:11:25] That's how normally, till recently, things used to happen across the globe. These were not media spectacle. These were not public spectacle. Calling and humiliating a person. Okay. Let's go. This is as far as diplomacy and administration is concerned. Now, let me tell you. Let me ask you. What gives Trump the moral high ground to talk about white and black and racism and others?
[00:11:53] What gives him the moral high ground? See, it was in his tenure that we saw the George Floyd case. It was in his tenure that this happened. A man was begging for his life. That officer killed him. Literally. He was a black. The entire country stood for him.
[00:12:22] Went against the administration. Went against the police. Till such time, the police had to kneel and ask for forgiveness. And you know what happened to that cop? That cop is released. The cop who choked that black man on the streets is released. When there was agitation, Trump said, you agitate and I am going to fire bullets on you. Trump said that. Later on he clarified. He said, no, no, I didn't say that. I didn't mean that.
[00:12:50] What I meant is, you know, if you agitate, you know, obviously we will have to use weapons or we will have to use force. This is what Trump is. This is what his administration is. You see, Trump in 2018 had called countries of Hayati and African nations as shithole countries. Shithole countries. In fact, he said how contrasting they were to Norway.
[00:13:17] Implying Norway being a white country and Africa and Hayati being a black country. He said they were shitholes and look at them. They are such a, what a contrast. This was Trump 2018. What is he talking about? What gives him the moral high ground to advise somebody else? Let me ask you another question.
[00:13:42] The same Donald Trump invite the Jinping of China and ambush him the same way for over 1 million Weigur's that they have in detention camp. 1 million. 1 million Chinese Muslims are put in detention camp possibly because they practice Islam.
[00:14:09] Can Donald Trump call Jinping an ambush him? Lights down and then put those videos and show him what is happening. Why is happening? Would he dare do it? So, what exactly is he trying to do? Bully? Bully nations that he can bully? Make fun of nations that he can? Is that what America is all about? Or is that what America has been reduced to?
[00:14:40] That's the point I wanted to make. Till I see you next time. That's tomorrow at 10. Namaskar. I'll see you next time. Bye.