In a viral post originally shared by NOWinSA on X and watched by millions, throngs of white South Africans can be seen gathered at the US embassy in Pretoria on Saturday holding placards with a wide-rage of protest messages.
One placard read “Thank you, Trump,” while another stated “Make Afrikaans great again.” Others carried messages such as “No to land and property expropriation without compensation,” and “Make South Africa Great Again.”
This comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s executive order withdrawing aid from South Africa – after claiming Afrikaners were being treated “very badly.”
In a post on X, Trump claimed the South African government was planning to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump shared. “Massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see,” he added.
Afrikaners are an ethnic and linguistic community of white South Africans whose home language is Afrikaans.
Trump’s drastic move was fueled by billionaire Elon Musk’s own efforts, as he accused his home country of failing to stop what he has referred to as a “genocide.” This claim appears to be a highly calculated misinterpretation of the Expropriation Act, a new law signed into effect by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January 2025.
Their actions have since ignited debates about the notion of “white victimhood”.
What does “white victimhood” mean?
As Wits Professor Nicky Falkof explains in a feature on theconversation.com, white victimhood refers to:
White victimhood refers to a powerful set of beliefs that treats white people as special and different, but also as uniquely at risk. Within this narrative white people see themselves, and are sometimes seen by others, as extraordinary victims, whose exposure to violence or vulnerability is more concerning and important than anyone else’s
Professor Falkof further clarifies that white victimhood is often speculative, meaning it does not necessarily relate to actual events but rather to white people’s feelings of being threatened or unsafe.
“Entire political agendas develop around the idea that white people must be protected because they face exceptional threats,” she adds.
Likewise, Trump and Musk’s assertions were not based on actual evidence. President Ramaphosa has publicly denied that the Expropriation Act law is tied to any race, stating that such claims are full of misinformation and distortions.
“The people of this country know the pain of forced removals. That is why we will never allow forced removals again,” the president highlighted during his 2025 SONA speech.
He explained that the new law enables “constitutionally mandated legal process”. The Act permits, he said, “nil compensation” for land deemed necessary for the public good. This may include property that is unused or poses risks to the public.
Whether the current developments can be fairly tied to claims of white victimhood? Renowned South African author and social activist Annika Langa appears to align with this critique in a recent X post (shown below). Condemning the rhetoric behind the apartheid-era slogan “Make South Africa Great Again”, she shared:
I detest the lies, the oblivious victimhood, and AfriForum. Now, I’m ashamed to be a white South African — or to be seen as one of “them” by the public. How many others feel this way?’
Adding to the backlash, Reddit user @InfernalWraither – a white South African with partial Afrikaner heritage – condemned the protest, sharing:
As a White South African who is half Afrikaans from my moms side and she would have died a second time around rather than being refugee from Trump or anything along that. I don’t even know what’s up with this crap anymore, victim cards played hard
Their remarks underscore a growing tension between white South Africans who reject the allegation of marginalization (narratives of persecution) as perpetuated by Elon Musk, and those leveraging victimhood politics, fueling debates over identity and historical accountability.
