Fact-Checking False Claims About Our South Africa Coverage

A YouTube video titled "Did The Times Get It Right With Ramaphosa?" posted by Colonel Chris Wyatt includes the following inaccuracies about a Times interview with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa:

Tariffs

Wyatt claims our story is wrong about South Africa having the highest tariffs in Africa and the consequences of a White House meeting with President Trump and Ramaphosa. Though President Trump did announce the tariffs before the meeting with Ramaphosa in May, it was not until July that those tariffs were finalized and published by the White House. While the tariffs of other countries were scaled back, South Africa stayed at 30%. Wyatt named several African countries in his video that he said received higher tariffs than South Africa. But in the tariffs that President Trump finalized at the end of July, all of those countries got lower tariffs than South Africa.

Land Seizure and Genocide Claims

Wyatt falsely claims our story is wrong about government land seizure and violence against Afrikaners. We're confident in our reporting, which is based on numerous interviews with experts, farmers and government officials, as well as government records that there have not been government land seizures under the new law yet. Regarding violence against Afrikaners, police statistics don't support the narrative of widespread targeted killings of Afrikaner farmers. In fiscal year 2024/25, more than 25,000 people were murdered in South Africa, with only 42 of those murders occurring during farm attacks according to the police's crime statistics.

Land Ownership

Wyatt disputes the fact that half of the country's surface area is owned by white South Africans by citing incomplete data. South Africa's own official government land audit states that 114 million hectares are registered with the Deeds Office, but that the country has 121.9 million hectares of land. Wyatt says that there are only 37 million hectares of farmland in South Africa, citing the land audit. But this is an inaccurate reading of the audit. The audit states that 37 million hectares are owned by "individual landowners." Additional land is owned by trusts, companies and other entities, which brings the total farmland in South Africa much higher.The statistic about half of the surface area cited in our story comes from experts Johann Kirsten and Wandile Sihlobo, who are agricultural economists in South Africa affiliated with Stellenbosch University. They calculate that there are more than 77 million hectares of farmland in South Africa, with an estimated 61 million under white ownership.