One thousand South Africans gather for pro-Trump rally

About a thousand people gathered outside the US embassy in Pretoria on Saturday to show their support for President Donald Trump after he hit out at the "injust" treatment of white South Africans.

Denouncing a recent law on land expropriation and murders committed against farmers, 1,200 people took part in the rally, according to the South African police.

"It's the first time we've seen in my lifetime that a foreign president stands up for the Afrikaner people like what we've seen him do, so we have to support this," said Walter Wobben, a 52-year-old owner of a cattle farm in the Western Cape province, referring to the descendants of Dutch settlers.

He handed out "Make Afrikaners Great Again" caps to the all-white crowd, which included bikers in black leather, fans of the local Bulls rugby team and farmers wearing traditional beige shirts and shorts with leather boots.

"Less than 100 kilometres (62 miles) from here my uncle and aunt were brutally attacked, and my uncle died in hospital after being in emergency care for about three weeks," he said.

"My aunt is still in a wheelchair. She's never recovered, she can't walk. And she's got brain damage. Two elderly people in their 80s."

The country, which had a population of 62 million according to the 2022 census, suffers from one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with nearly 28,000 murders recorded in the year from February 2023 to February 2024, according to the latest annual statistics released by police.

"There are so many other things happening in South Africa, but nobody gives specific attention to farm killings," said Rose Basson, 64. "No one other than Trump talks about what's happening. They ignore it."

Between rows of motorbikes and pick-up trucks, Basson, a doctor of psychology turned chess teacher, said she believes that there are "too many racial laws".

Whites represented a little more than seven per cent of the population but owned 72 per cent of agricultural land in 2017, according to government figures. Laws passed since 1994 aim to roll back the legacy of expropriation of black-owned land under colonisation and then apartheid.