A South African town councillor has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for using a video of white crosses from KwaZulu-Natal as misleading evidence of mass killings of White farmers.
During a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, Trump played drone footage showing hundreds of white crosses along a rural road, claiming they marked the graves of over 1,000 White farmers murdered in a genocide.
But Bebsie Cronje, a local representative from Newcastle, said the crosses were part of a 2020 memorial for one farming couple, the Raffertys, and were never intended to symbolize widespread killings. “It was just a total tribute to the Raffertys,” she told Reuters, calling Trump’s use of the footage “very sad.”
South Africa’s police minister Senzo Mchunu echoed Cronje’s remarks, confirming the crosses were unrelated to any mass killings and rejecting Trump’s claim of genocide as “unfounded.” He noted farm murder rates remain low, with only one White farmer killed among six such cases reported in early 2025.
Mchunu also criticized distorted narratives around farm murders, emphasizing that victims have historically included more Black South Africans.
Cronje, a member of the opposition Democratic Alliance, stressed the memorial was organized by close friends of the Raffertys and wasn’t politically driven. She added that while another White farmer has since been murdered, she does not see the attacks as racially motivated.