On May 21, during a summit meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Donald Trump played a video for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, claiming it as evidence of white farmer killings in South Africa. However, the video was actually footage from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, not South Africa.
According to Reuters on May 22, the video Trump showed to Ramaphosa was a screenshot from February 2023 footage shot in Goma, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, by Reuters News. This video depicted humanitarian organizations recovering bodies following attacks by the Rwandan-backed rebel group ‘M23’ and was unrelated to South Africa.
Despite Trump’s insistence that the video was evidence of “white farmers being buried in South Africa,” Reuters fact-checked its own footage and countered that the images were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, having no connection to South Africa.
Zafar al Katanti, the Reuters videographer who shot the footage, expressed his shock that Trump used the video to claim evidence of racial killings in South Africa, calling it a distortion of reality before a global audience.
When Trump first presented the video, Ramaphosa appeared bewildered and questioned the video’s origin, as he had no knowledge of the content. Trump incorrectly stated it was shot in South Africa.
Although the South African government did not issue a separate statement following the event, local media reported that Ramaphosa told aides after the meeting that the situation was “incomprehensible.”
This incident was highlighted once again in the White House briefing room. An NBC reporter confronted White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitt, pointing out that the president showed a video claiming to depict the burial grounds of hundreds of white South Africans killed, which was not true. Leavitt maintained that the video symbolically represented crosses for farmers who had been racially persecuted and killed.
The narrative around the alleged “white farmer genocide” has been spread by far-right platforms for years but has been debunked as a conspiracy theory. Additionally, the incorrect use of the video was broadcasted live and gained international attention.
The issue brought to light the need for critical examination and verification of information shared by leaders, especially with high-stakes implications and viewership around the world.