State Security Agency should have warned Ramaphosa about Trump’s false ‘farm murder crosses’ – Ntshavheni

Earlier this month, on 13 May 2025, Elon Musk retweeted a video showing aerial footage of a row of white crosses alongside a road.

The words accompanying the post he retweeted were: “Each cross represents a white farmer who was murdered in South Africa. 

“And some people still deny that white South Africans/Boers are persecuted and say they don’t deserve asylum because they are white.”

The crosses were in fact linked to a couple murdered in a robbery in KwaZulu-Natal about five years ago – and the crime was not racially motivated.

Musk’s post said: “So many crosses.”

His retweet was shared about 52,000 times.

So many crosses https://t.co/1C6VUhZBdw

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2025

Now, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says the State Security Agency (SSA), based on Musk’s post, should have anticipated that US President Donald Trump would show the same footage of the crosses during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House last week.

In a long and detailed statement issued on Sunday, 25 May 2025, she referred to the crosses and several other issues relating to Ramaphosa’s recent US visit.

‘Burial sites’ misinformation

During Ramaphosa’s visit, Trump showed him a video montage, including footage of the crosses.

Trump, who has peddled the false idea that there is a white Afrikaner genocide in South Africa, said: “Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers…

“Each one of those white things you see is a cross and there’s approximately a thousand of them. They were all white farmers. The family of white farmers…

“It’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people were all killed.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cy-HJ2wRZs&t=1582s

 

Ramaphosa wanted to know if Trump knew where the footage had been taken, as he had not seen it before.

Trump simply said that it had been taken in South Africa – Ramaphosa said he would find out.

‘SSA should have known’

Ntshavheni, in her statement on Sunday, said News24 had fact-checked Trump’s claim about the white crosses. 

Daily Maverick has also fact-checked claims, including about the crosses, Trump made during Ramaphosa’s visit.

Rebecca Davis reported: “The white crosses were erected along the road in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, in 2020 as a protest against the murder of Glen and Vida Rafferty on their farm.

“The crosses have since been removed.”

Read more: Trump’s Oval Office drama: Unpacking the misleading claims about South Africa’s ‘white genocide’

As for News24, its article said: “The footage does not show burial sites… The crosses did not only represent white farmers.”

In her statement on Sunday, Ntshavheni said she had been unable to relay information about the crosses, as conveyed to her via the SSA, to Ramaphosa when Trump had shown him the footage.

This was because of “the lack of gadgets” – presumably, the lack of cellphones on hand during the meeting.

“Should the SSA have anticipated that display, given that Elon tweeted about it on 14 May?” Ntshaveni said. 

“Most definitely, and it is an area that the SSA must never fail the President on their briefing to him again,” Ntshavheni’s statement said.

(Daily Maverick established Musk retweeted footage of the crosses on 13 May.)

‘Not graves’

Last week, when releasing South Africa’s latest crime statistics, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu also referred to the crosses footage.

Read more: ‘Five of six farm murder victims were black’ — Police Minister Senzo Mchunu rubbishes Trump’s white genocide lies

“The picture of many crosses on both sides of a dirt road between Newcastle and Normandien in KwaZulu-Natal flows from a Normandien-registered case,” he said.

“The incident sparked a very strong protest by the farming community in the area. The crosses symbolised killings on farms over years; they are not graves,” Mchunu added.

“And it was unfortunate that those facts got twisted to fit a false narrative about crime in South Africa.”

‘Diplomatic courtesies’

In her statement on Sunday, Ntshavheni referred to several other issues relating to Ramaphosa’s US visit.

She said Ramaphosa had been respectfully received.

“This working visit is one of those where better diplomatic courtesies were accorded to our President,” Ntshavheni said.

“President Ramaphosa is the first African head of state and government to be invited to the White House in this second term of the Trump administration. 

“It is not only the significance of the invitation that matters, it is the issues the two leaders discussed beyond South Africa’s domestic issues.”

Read more: Ramaphosa gets braaied and fed to Trump’s Maga at the US-SA Boerewors Summit

She said Ramaphosa and Trump had “compared notes on their approaches towards ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

Ntshavheni reiterated that during discussions over lunch and at the Oval Office, relations had been respectful.

“There were no signs of the impatience the world had witnessed during other recent visits to the White House,” she said. DM