South African ‘white squatters’ go viral amid Expropriation Act row
The images are old and cannot be directly attributed to any kind of expropriation of white South Africans
CLAIM
Images of white South African squatters have been shared thousands of times online, linking rising poverty among South Africa’s white population to expropriation.
BACKGROUND
United States President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order that provides for the resettlement of Afrikaners as refugees to America. The order said it would “prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.”
It followed on foot of the Expropriation Act signed into law by the South African government last month that would allow land seizures by the state particularly focused on unused land and without compensation under specific circumstances. Trump’s billionaire advisor Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has claimed the act will lead to the seizure of land owned by Afrikaners — the white population descendant from Dutch colonialists.
Posts shared thousands of times by user @JackPosobiec, who has a follower count of over 3 million on X, shared images and a video linking white poverty to the post-Apartheid government’s policies to “strip these people of land and employment”.
METHOD
A reverse image search of the photos shared in the X post above showed that they were not new but had already been used in reports by the UK’s Mail Online in 2016 and 2019.
Therefore, they are not directly linked to the Expropriation Act. Rather, a BBC report dating back to 2008 about the rise of poverty among white South Africans gives some of the reasons for rising poverty levels among this group.
“In the days of apartheid, impoverished white Afrikaners were amply protected by the state. The National Party which came to power in 1948 on a wave of Afrikaner nationalism, guaranteed Afrikaans-speaking South Africans employment, subsidised housing and state benefits,” it reported. Affirmative action and other policies designed to make employment and company ownership in South Africa more equitable saw White people lose their privileges. Post-Apartheid, the South African government does not make exceptions for white people with poverty no longer limited to non-white communities.
Despite this, major disparities remain.
Statistics published in 2024 estimated South Africa has a population of about 63 million, of which 4.54 million (7.2 percent) are white. The report did not distinguish between Afrikaner and other white groups. The largest group are Black South Africans with 81.7 percent of the population.
South Africa’s rate of unemployment stood at almost 33 percent at the start of 2024, according to the governmental department Statistics South Africa. A report from the first quarter of 2024 identifies white South Africans as the least likely group to be unemployed with an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent among men and 9.7 percent among women. By contrast, Black South Africans are the most likely to be experiencing unemployment with 34.9 percent of men and 39.2 percent of women unemployed.
The report also compares changes in the unemployment rate between 2014 and 2024, finding an increase of unemployment among the white population from 6.6 percent to 9.2 percent, compared to an increase from 28.5 percent to 36.9 percent among the Black population. This shows an increase of 2.6 percent in white unemployment compared to a steeper 8.4 percent rise in Black unemployment.
Various reports at different points over the last 15 years have cited figures claiming that 400,000 live below the poverty line. Other reports said around 400,000 to 450,000 white South Africans were thought to live in informal dwellings.
For example, the UK Mail report that also featured the photos above said 400,000 white people were living in poverty in 2016. Factchecking organisation Africa Check refuted those claims that appeared to be based on a monthly expenditure not in line with the South African government’s definition of the poverty line at the time. Using the government’s definition, the poverty rate stood at 0.9 percent among the White population.
A BBC report from 2013 and a Reuters report from 2015 cited the same source, the largely white trade union Solidariteit Helpende Hand, for the 400,000 to 450,000 figure of white people living in shacks. However, no such statistics are being kept, casting doubt over the numbers, which have also been shown not to be backed up by data from the 2011 census that led a top estimate by Africa Check of 31,000 white people living in informal dwellings.RATING
The images are old and cannot be directly attributed to any kind of expropriation of white South Africans by the post-Apartheid government. The claim by @JackPosobiec that “white squatter camps” have grown in number cannot be verified. They also lack context relating to the major socio-economic disparities between White and Black South Africans, as well as the overall economic situation in South Africa.
SOURCES
Bbc.co.uk. (2025). BBC NEWS | Africa | South Africa’s hidden white poverty. [online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7526158.stm [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].
Burrows, T. (2016). The ‘white squatter camps’ of South Africa. [online] Mail Online. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3462336/The-white-squatter-camps-South-Africa-home-hundreds-families-enduring-terrible-poverty-blame-fall-Apartheid.html [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].
F24. (2025). White S. Africans clamour for US resettlement after Trump order. [online] France 24. Available at: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250210-white-s-africans-clamour-for-us-resettlement-after-trump-order [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].
O’Reilly, F. (n.d.). White poverty in South Africa. [online] The Wider Image. Available at: https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/white-poverty-in-south-africa [Accessed 27 Feb. 2021].
Rademeyer, J. (2022). Do 400,000 whites live in squatter camps in South Africa? No. [online] Africa Check. Available at: https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/reports/do-400000-whites-live-squatter-camps-south-africa-no [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].
Simpson, J. (2013). Do white people have a future in South Africa? BBC News. [online] 19 May. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22554709.
Tanno, S. (2019). Inside South Africa’s post-Apartheid ‘white squatter camps’. [online] Mail Online. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7503941/Inside-South-Africas-post-Apartheid-white-squatter-camps.html [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].
Wilkinson, R. (2016). Mail Online’s claim of 400,000+ poor whites in South Africa incorrect. [online] Africa Check. Available at: https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/reports/mail-onlines-claim-400000-poor-whites-south-africa-incorrect [Accessed 27 Aug. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Here is a video from inside the Afrikaner squatter camps in South Africa [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Conditions in Afrikaner squatter camps in South Africa that have grown [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].