President Ramaphosa's Day of Reconciliation speech counters Trump’s claims

President Cyril Ramaphosa tackled the ongoing misinformation regarding farm murders, specifically addressing comments made by former United States President Donald Trump, during his Day of Reconciliation speech.

The president was welcomed by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli and Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie at the Ncome Museum in the Nquthu Local Municipality, uMzinyathi District, KwaZulu-Natal, for the National Reconciliation Day Commemoration on Thursday.

The president delivered his keynote address under the theme “Reaffirming Reconciliation for Future Generations,” which seeks to reaffirm South Africa’s commitment to unity, healing and nation-building.

In his address, he subtly tackled the remarks made by Trump last month on his social network “Truth Social” that the US did not attend the G20 in South Africa “because the South African Government refuses to acknowledge or address the horrific Human Rights Abuses endured by Afrikaners and other descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers”. 

Trump said, “they are killing white people, and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them. Perhaps worst of all, the soon-to-be-out-of-business New York Times and the Fake News Media won't issue a word against this genocide”. 

He also said that due to South Africa’s refusal to hand over the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from the US Embassy, “at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20”, which will be hosted in Miami, Florida.

In his address, President Ramaphosa said that commemorating the 16th of December provides the country with an opportunity to confront the past with honesty, acknowledge the complexities of our shared history and commit to building a peaceful future together. 

“Our democracy was built on reconciliation. South Africans bear the scars of centuries of dispossession and oppression, of resistance being met with batons and bullets. 

“Fellow South Africans, there are those, inside and outside our country, who are trying their utmost to paint a false picture of us as the South African people.

“They do not tell us what the surveys say: that the majority of South Africans are hopeful about the state of our democracy. They do not tell us that the majority of South Africans believe race relations have improved since 1994.

“They do not show the pictures of African, white, Indian and coloured children learning together, studying together and playing together,” Ramaphosa said.

“They do not want to talk about the friendships, neighbourliness and kindness shown by black and white towards each other. They don’t want to play all the social media clips we are seeing of young Afrikaners in veldskoens dancing to amapiano, and white teenagers speaking fluent isiZulu with their friends.

“Our country’s detractors are not talking about successful land restitution, of communities sharing the land and of successful black farmers,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa said that South Africa is a country of many diverse views where people not only understand our history in different ways, but also experience the reality of the present in different ways.

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Cape Argus