Minister Senzo Mchunu dismisses claims of genocide in South Africa as totally unfounded,stressing respect for the US but rejecting false narratives that distort tragic farm murders into genocide accusations.
Image: GCIS
Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, has rejected claims of a so-called "genocide" taking place in the country, particularly against the farming community.
These claims, recently echoed by US President Donald Trump, have been labelled as "totally unfounded and totally unsubstantiated" by the minister.
“We have respect for the United States of America as a country. We have respect for the people of the United States and we have respect for the President of the United States, President Donald Trump. But we have no respect for his genocide story whatsoever,” Mchunu said in a media briefing.
Mchunu noted that reputable media outlets in the US, the UK, and South Africa have all expressed doubt over the validity of these genocide allegations.
“We welcome that,” he said. South Africa is a full democratic state, with a lot of NGOs, NPOs and free media, he said.
“They would have run headlines both locally and abroad on seeing the first sign of a genocide.”
Addressing the widely circulated image of numerous white crosses placed along a road in KwaZulu-Natal, Mchunu clarified that these do not represent graves.
“The picture of many crosses on both sides of a dead road between Newcastle and Normandien in KZN flows from a Normandien registered case, 19 of 8 of 2020, where the incident occurred on the September 30, that year on Hanover Farm,” he said.
''The case involved the tragic murder of Mr G Rafferty and Mrs V.L Rafferty by criminals in their home,'' he said.
He further clarified that the crosses were part of a protest by the local farming community, meant to symbolise farm killings over the years, not genocide.
“It was unfortunate that those facts got twisted to fit a false narrative,” Mchunu said.
Moreover Mchunu said the three suspects were arrested and sentenced for their murder and they are in jail.
''This debunks the claim that nothing gets done when crime is committed. Three months ago, an American pastor got kidnapped in Nelson Mandela Bay; this led to an intensive search by South African Police Service; the suspects were arrested and the pastor was freed back to America. Again, law was enforced.''
Mchunu said they do not deny that the levels of crime in the country are high . ''We are very concerned; crime cuts across all divides. We are currently intensifying the fight against crime and criminals.''
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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