South Africa police minister says Trump’s genocide claim ‘twisted’

South Africa police minister on Friday said U.S. President Donald Trump ‘twisted’ facts to push baseless genocide claims during an Oval Office meeting with South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Trump claimed that a clip he played during the meeting showed white crosses on the side of a road, were a memorial for white farmers who were killed.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said the crosses did not mark graves or burial sites, but were a temporary memorial put up in 2020 to protest farm killings across South Africa.

He said they were put up during a funeral procession for a white couple who were killed in a robbery on their farm.

Mchunu said the false claim by Trump was part of his “genocide story” — referring to the U.S. president’s baseless allegations that there is a widespread campaign in South Africa to kill white farmers and take their land that he has said amounts to a genocide.

“We have respect for the people of the United States and we have respect for the president of the United States, President Donald Trump, but we have no respect for his genocide story whatsoever,” said Mchunu.

By Africanews