Donald Trump’s false allegations in the Oval Office on Wednesday that The majority of South African blacks are trying to eradicate white Africans They have upset the African country, causing re -racial discussions again, in a way we had to meet since the end of Apartheid.

The “born free”, young people who reached adulthood after the country’s first free elections in 1994 and promised them a bright future in a New South Africa, referred to awkward discussions with friends and colleagues and racist tensions that were largely unknown to their generation.

White South Africans expressed their long -suffering anger over the failure of the African National Congress to keep his promises of an equal, non -racial society.

South Africa is the most unequal society in the world, according to World Bank. It is tarnished by huge financial inequalities and unequal access to jobs and education. Many neighborhoods are still separated by race. Violent crime remains a scourge.

One day after meeting the White House between Trump and the South African president Cyril Ramaphosathe US president’s unfounded allegations of “genocide” against white farmers dominated headlines, social media and debate across the country.

Some media applauded Ramafa who remained calm: “He didn’t catch him … Zelenski,” wrote Daily Maverick, referring to Trump’s controversial meeting with Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelenski In February. “Trump forced South Africa to face the scourge of our crime,” one article in News24 wrote.

Ramafa hoped his visit to Washington would restore relationships at a time when South Africa It has cut costs and is borne by debt. The Minister of Finance Enooch godongwana He said on Wednesday that the economy is expected to grow at a rate of 1.4% this year, reduced by half a unit from March’s forecasts.

A trade agreement with the United States would help. But it was not Trump’s main priority on Wednesday, as he led the discussion to the white Africans. “Thousands” applied for refugee status in the United States, Trump said, a claim that was difficult to verify.

A first group of about 50 white South Africans arrived in the United States earlier this month. “The murders of farmers in South Africa are a barbarism,” said John Endres, chief executive of the South African Institute of racial relations or IRR. “These crimes are characterized by irrational violence, aimed at vulnerable people such as elderly farmers and their families.” However, he said, “it is inaccurate to identify white farmers as the only victims of these crimes.”

In 2023, according to IRR data, 49 people were killed in farms, some of them black. At national level, there were 27,621 murders that year. About 80% of the victims were “poor, or unemployed young black men,” Endres said.

In a population of over 60 million people, about 4.6 million are white, according to the latest South African census held in 2022. About 2.7 million spoke Africans to their first language.

Tshepo Madlingozi, an official of the South African Human Rights Committee, said the country remains divided into racial lines and has not yet fully addressed its painful history. “This really shows that we have a long way to go for building a nation,” Madlingozi said.