Americans don’t buy Trump’s South African genocide claims

US President Donald Trump’s claims of the South African government pursuing “extermination policies” and a “genocide” of the white minority population have done the opposite of scaring tourists away.

Speaking to Newsday on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Soweto, Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille noted that, for the first time in South African history, the number of tourists from the US has surpassed that of the UK.

Looking at StatsSA’s Tourism Statistics published on 25 November, South Africa welcomed 331,378 tourists cumulatively from the US between January and October 2025.

This is an increase of 7.5% from the 308,379 recorded during the same period in 2024.

In comparison, 315,877 tourists arrived from the UK cumulatively during the same period.

“Most tourists are really intelligent people, not swayed by statements like ‘very bad things are happening’ in the country,” said De Lille.

“Very beautiful things are actually happening, which shows in the numbers of the tourism sector growing.”

South Africa has finally recovered from its Covid-19 tourism slump. The number of tourists increased by 110,138, representing a 13.5% change between October 2019 and October 2025.

Since re-entering the White House this year, Trump has repeatedly made the unfounded claim that a “genocide” is taking place in South Africa.

He has claimed that white South African farmers, particularly Afrikaans-speakers, are being killed at much higher rates than other South Africans and are legally persecuted by the South African government.

Africa Check debunked several claims Trump made about a supposed genocide during a May 2025 meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa. 

“There is no evidence that white farmers in South Africa are more likely to be murdered than other groups,” wrote Africa Check researcher Keegan Leech.

South African officials have denied allegations, saying that while violent crime levels are high in the country, it impacts races across the board.

The 1948 Genocide Convention defines it as committing certain acts with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group – something that Pretoria has vehemently denied

He has cited this issue to justify measures such as imposing tariffs on South Africa, reducing aid, and supporting refugee applications for Afrikaners in the United States.

Most recently, he and all other high-ranking US officials boycotted the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg this weekend, citing these concerns.

The numbers don’t lie – De Lille

Citing the fact that the intake of US tourists into South Africa has increased significantly, De Lille said that people want to come and see if Trump’s claims are true. “They arrive here and see it is not.”

“They see there is no genocide. So in a way, it has no impact on tourism at all.”

“We just have to say to those people spreading those lies and misinformation that we should be patriots. Countries across the world have their problems.”

“It’s not to the benefit of any South African to always blacken our country and make us look bad to the rest of the world. Their strategy is not working, I can tell them that.”

Speaking about South Africa’s G20 Presidency, the Minister said that tourism is one of the sectors that benefited the most.

“Over the past year, we hosted more than 135 business events. We have seen so many first-time delegates arriving in our country. They are saying that they are coming back,” said De Lille.

According to the latest Economic Impact Research, in 2025, tourism is forecasted to support 1.9 million jobs.

Underlining its role as a key employer, the sector accounts for an estimated 11.3% of all jobs in South Africa. 

Domestic and international visitor spending in 2025 is forecasted at R445 billion and R128.8 billion.