WASHINGTON, USA — The Donald J. Trump administration announced that the United States will exclude South Africa from the 2026 G20 summit, after claiming Johannesburg’s 2025 hosting had exposed “horrific human-rights abuses” — including an alleged “genocide” against white farmers — that Washington says it can no longer ignore.
Trump’s decision, shared via social media, rests on long-promoted allegations that white South Africans — particularly descendants of European settlers — are being systematically killed and dispossessed of their farms. He wrote that “Afrikaners … are being killed and their land … illegally confiscated.”
But experts and South African authorities have repeatedly rejected the notion of a targeted campaign. According to the latest data from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), murders on farms account for a tiny fraction of the country’s overall homicide figures — roughly 0.2pc of annual murders — and are overwhelmingly driven by robbery, not race or organised persecution.
As recently as the first quarter of 2025, the South African Police Service recorded six farm-related homicides — only one of which involved a white victim.
Authorities have also stressed there is no evidence of government-sanctioned land seizures targeted at white farmers. New land laws in South Africa allow expropriation only under strict conditions, mostly when land is abandoned or under-utilised, and compensation remains the norm.
In addition to dropping South Africa from the 2026 G20 guest list, the White House said it will suspend all payments and subsidies to Pretoria, citing what it calls “unaddressed human-rights crimes.”
The move follows a tense G20 closure in Johannesburg, where South Africa rejected a request that the U.S. hand over the G20 presidency gavel to its embassy representative — a departure from tradition.
South Africa’s government swiftly dismissed the U.S. action as punitive and based on misinformation. The foreign ministry described the “white genocide” narrative as “false and misleading” and defended the country’s right to govern its land and foreign relations independently.
Researchers caution that while farm murders are a serious concern that demands improved rural security, they remain part of broader violent-crime trends affecting all races. According to the ISS, nearly all farm attacks are prompted by robbery or desperation, not xenophobic or racist motives.
“There is no credible evidence of a coordinated campaign targeting white South Africans for elimination,” said a senior ISS analyst.
International human-rights advocates warn that conflating criminal incidents with ethnic persecution — or using them to justify diplomatic coercion — risks undermining trust, inflaming racial tensions, and distracting from real, broader security challenges.
