Trump falsely presents South African memorial video as evidence of mass farmer burials
Video actually shows temporary memorial to farmers killed in South Africa
Claim
U.S. President Donald Trump showed a social media video during a bilateral meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on May 21, claiming it depicted “burial sites” of “over 1,000” white farmers in South Africa who had been murdered due to racial persecution.
Background:
A bilateral meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa spiralled at the White House on May 21, after Trump claimed that white farmers in the African nation were being killed and “persecuted”.
Politicians and members of the press had gathered in the Oval Office on Wednesday for a meeting which was expected to ease tensions between the two countries, a week after Trump granted asylum to 54 Afrikaners who he claimed were discriminated against in the country.
As the meeting progressed, Trump surprised the room when he instructed a White House staffer to “Turn the lights down” in the Oval Office.
As the lights dimmed in the room, a TV displayed video footage of South African politician and the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, Julius Malema, in which Malema is heard repeatedly saying to followers at a rally to “kill the farmer” and “kill the Boer.”
A second video on the screen, played from an X account, showed an aerial video of a road surrounded by agricultural land. The footage appeared to show dozens of vehicles stopped in the area, with white crosses on both sides of the road.
Speaking over the video, Trump said: “Now. This is very bad. These are. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites, over 1,000 of white farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there’s approximately a thousand of them. They’re all white farmers, the family of white farmers. And those cars aren’t driving. They’re stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. Uh, and it’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people were all killed.”
In reply, President Ramaphosa said: “Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?, to which Trump replies “No”.
“I’d like to know where that is..because this I’ve never seen,” Ramaphosa adds.
“I mean, it’s in South Africa,” Trump replies, to which Ramaphosa says, “We need to find out”.
Tensions between the two countries have been on the rise since February after Trump signed an executive order cutting financial assistance to South Africa, while ordering the U.S. government to grant refugee status to Afrikaners — descendants of Dutch and French colonisers — and offer them asylum in the U.S, accusing Ramaphosa’s government of “unjust racial discrimination”.
Signing the executive order, Trump said there were “countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fuelling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners”.
“In addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements,” Trump said at the time.
In reply to the executive order, the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa said that “the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid”.
The statement continued: “It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.”
Method
The aerial video shown in the Oval Office was played from an X account under the username @realMaalouf (Archived here), which reposted it on May 12.
The uploader reposted the video with the caption “Each cross represents a white farmer who was murdered in South Africa. And some people still deny that white South Africans/Boers are persecuted and say they don’t deserve asylum because they are white.”
@realMaalouf was repositing the video from an X account under the username @twatterbaas (Archived here), which originally posted the video on March 8, 2025.
The uploader shared the video, saying: “Watch: We have protested so many times after a white farmer and his family have been killed. Mainstream media rarely aired our plea. After all our attempts over the years, the South African government still deny farm murders in South Africa.”
Analysis of the video showed it was shot from a helicopter, but it was of low quality.
A Google reverse image search uncovered a news article from September 5, 2020, reporting on a procession and memorial in memory of a husband and wife who were murdered on their farm in Normandien in Newcastle, South Africa, days earlier.
Local reports said Glen and Vida Rafferty were shot and killed at their farm during a farm attack in the Normandien area on August 29.
“According to official sources, Glen and Vida Rafferty returned home to their farm at around 10.30 p.m. last night, where they were overpowered and slain by a group of attackers at the entrance to the property. The attackers then fled the scene in the couple’s vehicle. It is believed the Rafferty’s dog was also shot,” the report said.
The Newcastle Advertiser, reporting at the time, said: “Residents, in their various vehicles, assembled at the Trim Park from mid-morning and set out at 11.30 a.m., following a route through the CBD before heading out onto the Normandien road. Just after the Horn River bridge, hundreds of symbolic wooden crosses had been erected along the route by volunteers.”
A video published by the same outlet showed the scene in Normandien, near Newcastle on September 5, 2020, with the paper writing: “Each cross represents the lost life of a farmer”.
In the video shared by the Newcastle Advertiser, we see several similarities between its video and the video shared in the White House.
The crosses on both sides of the road and the long tailbacks of vehicles are seen in both videos. At the same time, foliage and a mountainous region can also be observed in both the Advertiser’s video and the video shared in the Oval Office.
A helicopter can also be observed in the video shot by the news organisation, while the video played in the White House shows the same scene from the air.
Cross-matching the police and news reports with Google Maps imagery from 2023 indicates that the footage was filmed near the couple’s farm in the Normandien area.
From this analysis, we can conclude that the footage was filmed from different vantage points at the same event in September 2020.
We can also confirm that the footage does not show “burial sites” of “over 1,000” white farmers, but rather a memorial procession for a farming couple. Local reports confirm that each cross represents the lost life of a farmer, but is not a burial site as claimed by U.S. President Trump, and the memorial was temporary and later removed.
Rating
The video shown by U.S. President Trump in the White House, which he claimed depicted “burial sites” of “over 1,000” white farmers in South Africa who had been murdered due to racial persecution, is false and misleading. The footage has been misrepresented and shows a memorial procession for a farming couple murdered in 2020. Each cross represented the lost life of a farmer and is not a burial site.
Sources
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the President of South Africa [Accessed 22 May 2025].
Renè (2025). Available at: Government of South Africa notes the USA Executive Order. [online] DIRCO. [Accessed 22 May 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Each cross represents a white farmer who was murdered in South Africa. [Accessed 22 May 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: We have protested so many times after a white farmer and his family have been killed. [Accessed 22 May 2025].
Sakhiseni Nxumalo (2022). Available at: Life sentences for men who shot dead KZN farm couple and their dog. [online] TimesLIVE. [Accessed 22 May 2025].
byronpillay (2020). Available at: NEWCASTLE ADVERTISER: Procession to Normandien stretches across many kilometres. [online] Northern Natal News. [Accessed 22 May 2025].
Douglas, B. (2020). Available at: Husband and wife killed in Normandien farm attack. [online] Northern Natal News. [online] Northern Natal News. [Accessed 22 May 2025].
Saps.gov.za. (2020). Available at: Services | SAPS (South African Police Service). [online] [Accessed 22 May 2025].