Africa
South Africa’s President rejects Musk’s ‘white genocide’ claim
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday that the claim that white people are persecuted in his country is a “completely false narrative .” It was his latest attempt to push back against allegations by US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and some white minority groups in South Africa.
South African-born Elon Musk, who has regularly accused South Africa’s black-led government of being anti-white, repeated in a social media post this weekend that some political figures in the country are “actively promoting white genocide. “
In his weekly message to the nation, Mr Ramaphosa said South Africans “should not allow external events to divide us or pit us against each other”.
“In particular, we should challenge the completely false narrative that our country is a place where people of a certain race or culture are targeted for persecution.”
Mr. Ramaphosa did not name names, but his denial referred to allegations by Mr. Trump and others that South Africa is deliberately mistreating a white minority group known as Afrikaners by encouraging violent attacks on their farms and introducing legislation to seize their land.
These allegations were at the heart of an executive order issued by Mr. Trump last month, which cut funding to South Africa to punish the government while offering Afrikaners refugee status in the United States.
Afrikaners are descendants of Dutch and French settlers who arrived in South Africa over 300 years ago. They were at the heart of the apartheid government, which systematically oppressed non-whites, although South Africa largely succeeded in reconciling its many racial groups after the end of apartheid in 1994.
In his post on X, influential Trump adviser Musk cited a political rally last Friday in South Africa where Black leaders of a far-left opposition party sang a song with the lyrics: “Kill the Boer, the farmer .” Boer is a word for an Afrikaner.
“Very few people know that there is a major political party in South Africa that actively promotes white genocide,” Musk wrote. He added a link to a video of the rally.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X late Monday that the song “is a chant that incites violence. South African leaders and politicians must take steps to protect Afrikaners and other disadvantaged minorities. The United States is proud to offer these people who qualify for admission to our country, despite this horrific threat of violence that continues. “
The party in question, the Economic Freedom Fighters, is the fourth largest in parliament and a political opponent of Mr. Ramaphosa’s African National Congress. It won 9.5% of the vote in last year’s national elections. It has faced scrutiny for previously stoking racial tensions and for singing the song, which was used during apartheid as a call to fight government oppression.
The song’s current use has been criticized by some in South Africa, including other political parties, and a group representing Afrikaners has challenged its use in court. More than a decade ago, the song was deemed hate speech and banned by a court.
But it was the subject of several other legal proceedings before a 2022 ruling found it was not hate speech and was protected by freedom of expression because there was no evidence it incited violence. The EFF says it is a historical chant that should not be taken literally and has sometimes changed the lyrics to “kiss the Boer. “
Since Mr. Trump’s executive order, the South African government has sought to dispel what it says is misinformation about white farmers, who are sometimes victims of violent attacks in their homes. The government has condemned the attacks, but experts say there is no evidence that white people are being widely targeted and that they are, in fact, part of South Africa’s extremely high crime rate, which affects all races.
The Afrikaner group claims that police have sometimes undercounted farm homicides in official statistics. It recently said it had figures showing there were eight farm homicides in the three months between October and December last year, while police recorded only one.
According to police statistics, there were a total of 6,953 homicides in South Africa during the same period.
After their bodies were dismembered over a century ago and their skulls sent to Germany in racially-biased phrenology research, the remains of 19 African Americans have been returned to New Orleans for a proper send off. Sometime in the 1880’s New Orleans physician Dr. Henry D. Schmidt sent 19 crania to Leipzig, Germany for research.
The research believed skull shape could determine personality traits. In 2023, researchers with University of Leipzig began organizing the return of 19 skulls. “It is a demonstration of our own morality here in New Orleans and in Leipzig with the professors there who wanted to do something to restore the dignity of these people,” historian Eva Baham said.
Baham, who led a team of researchers, believe these 19 people died of natural causes. A jazz funeral in New Orleans was planned in their honour.
Hamas is seeking amendments to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior official with the group told The Associated Press on Saturday, as Palestinians in the Gaza Strip expressed hope the war would stop soon.
The Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks, said proposed amendments focused on “the U.S. guarantees, the timing of hostage release, the delivery of aid and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.” A separate Hamas statement said the proposal aimed for a permanent ceasefire, a comprehensive Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an ensured flow of aid. It added that 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 others would be released ” in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners.”
Israeli officials have approved the U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the nearly 20-month war and U.S. President Donald Trump has said negotiators are nearing a deal. Reacting to the latest developments, one man in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip said Palestinians hoped ‘to God that we will be rid of this war,” adding that they were “tired” of the relentless bloodshed.
As dusk settled over the city, another man said he hoped a deal would be agreed soon so that aid could be distributed. A ceasefire would pause the fighting for 60 days, release some of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and much-needed food aid and other assistance, according to Hamas and Egyptian officials who spoke earlier on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.
The nearly three-month blockade on Gaza has pushed the population of over 2 million to the brink of famine. While pressure slightly eased in recent days as Israel allowed some aid to enter, aid organizations say far from enough food is getting in.
The Ivory Coast’s political opposition, an alliance of parties known as the Coalition for a Peaceful Alternation, called on Saturday for political dialogue with the ruling party, Rally of the Republicans (RDR), five months ahead of the presidential election.
Opposition leaders denounced President Alassane Ouattara’s potential candidacy, as well as the exclusion of several political figures from the electoral list, including banker Tidjane Thiam, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Swiss bank Credit Suisse. To allow the candidacy of all political leaders, the country’s former First Lady, Simone Gbagbo asked President Alassane Ouattara “to take his pen to write an amnesty law that will erase everything”.
In Paris, Tidjane Thiam, president of the coalition and the PDCI, the main opposition party, projected a video onto big screens. In the video, he said that “justice must not be instrumentalized” and called for a revision of the electoral lists before the election.
The coalition strongly criticizes the Independent Electoral Commission, considering it biased. The presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire is scheduled for October 25, 2025. The Coalition for a Peaceful Alternation (known as CAP) in Ivory Coast was formed on March 10, 2025, to confront the presidential majority bloc. It brings together a number of opposition figures, including former political figures such as Pascal Affi N’Guessan, Charles Blé Goudé, and former First Lady Simone Gbagbo.
Alassane Ouattara became president of Côte d’Ivoire in May 2011 following the 2010 presidential election. That election was marked by a violent post-election crisis that pitted Ouattara’s supporters against those of outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo.
Since taking power, Ouattara has served three presidential terms, and his potential candidacy for a fourth term has drawn fierce criticism from the opposition. However, his supporters argue that the new constitution, passed in 2016, resets the clock.
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