Exclusive: US State Department Accuses Politicians of Endangering Afrikaner Lives After South Africa Farm Attacks

The U.S. State Department has sharply criticized South Africa and several of its politicians, alleging that their rhetoric is placing lives at risk after two attacks on White farmers believed to be Afrikaners — South Africans of European descent — near Johannesburg.

A 50-year-old man was reportedly tortured, while a 55-year-old woman was allegedly beaten to death.

In exclusive comments to News Media, a State Department spokesperson said, “the lives and property of Afrikaners have been endangered by politicians who incite race-based violence against them.”

The statement marks the latest escalation in an increasingly bitter dispute between Washington and Pretoria. The tensions first erupted publicly during a heated Oval Office exchange last year between President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa over a range of South African policies and issues, including concerns about the safety of the Afrikaner community.

Ian Cameron, chair of South Africa’s Portfolio Committee on Police and a member of Parliament from the main opposition Democratic Alliance, described this month’s attacks as “appalling.”

Cameron said one of the attacks involved Donovan Marx, a 50-year-old man who was at his farm roughly 80 miles from Johannesburg.

Speaking to News Media, Cameron said reports indicated that Marx was shot and stabbed, and that his ears were cut off. He described the assault as an act of “extraordinary cruelty.”

In a separate incident earlier this month in the same North West Province, 55-year-old farmer Hannetjie van Zyl was allegedly beaten to death while she was opening a gate.

Witnesses reportedly said van Zyl was attacked from behind and struck repeatedly on the head with an iron bar.

Vehicles and personal belongings were reportedly taken in both incidents. However, Corné Mulder, leader of the opposition Freedom Front Plus, said the alleged torture of Marx appeared to go beyond a conventional burglary or robbery.

“Safety and farm attacks in South Africa remains a huge problem,” Mulder told News Media. “Donovan Marx was attacked this week. He’s fighting for his life in hospital at the moment. The perpetrators not only attacked him, they tried to castrate him.”

Although both victims were White, public figures have not alleged that either attack was racially motivated.

Cameron said the attacks were part of a broader pattern. He said he had “personally attended farm-attack scenes where people were tortured with boiling water, burnt with clothing irons and subjected to other horrific abuse.”

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The South African Police Service, or SAPS, must assign experienced investigators, forensic teams and crime-intelligence officers to the cases, Cameron said. “Nobody should have to accept this level of violence as a normal part of life,” he added.

Mulder called the reported torture of farmers “unthinkable.” He also criticized President Ramaphosa for failing to publicly acknowledge the incidents or express sympathy.

“We have been pleading with [the] government to prioritize rural crime and farm attacks as a priority crime, they are not prepared to do so,” Mulder said.

News Media contacted the South African government for comment but was directed to police authorities, who did not immediately respond.

Mulder claims the recent farm attacks were fueled by the South African president’s refusal to heed Trump’s demand last year to stop performances of the song “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer.” The term “Boer” refers to a South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent, according to Merriam-Webster.

Ramaphosa said he could not stop the song being chanted in stadiums by crowds of up to 90,000 because the country’s highest court has said the lyrics are not hate speech.

“As long as [President Ramaphosa] does not stop the incitement to attack farmers with the singing of the song “Kill the Boer,” the attacks will continue,” Mulder wrote in a statement. “We see the practical reality when these things play out as happened with the last two farm attacks that we’ve seen.”

Last month, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Brent Bozell III told News Media that Ramaphosa could ban the song despite a court ruling that it did not constitute hate speech.

“So, to say, well, you can’t do it because the court said it’s not, you know, that’s poppycock,” Bozell said. “If President Ramaphosa, if he wants to, he can do it. It’s just as simple as that.”

The State Department doubled down on the administration’s demand that the singing of the song be banned, with a spokesperson telling News Media on Friday, “The United States asked senior government officials to condemn incitement to race-based violence, particularly the singing of “Kill the Farmer! Kill the Boer!”

The spokesperson added that Trump has demanded South Africa formally designate rural crime as a priority crime, and “expand alternatives to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment ownership requirements, such as equity equivalent investment programs.”

Regarding farmers, the State Department spokesperson said South African politicians “threaten to confiscate their farms without compensation and support a corrupt, race-based scoring system that discriminates against Afrikaners and other minorities in employment.”

“The lack of a meaningful response to these requests made clear that the South African government does not want a constructive relationship with the United States and is willing to continue pursuing oppressive policies that disadvantage all South Africans,” the spokesperson continued.

Nearly 13,000 South African refugees, most of them Afrikaners, have been flown to the U.S. during fiscal year 2026. That number is expected to increase by another 17,500 refugees in fiscal year 2027.

“As directed by President Trump, we are prioritizing the resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination,” the State Department spokesperson said.