U.S. Blows Lid Off Farm Murder Cover-Up in South Africa

In a rare and damning thread posted on X.com by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), the United States has directly called out the South African government and media establishment for downplaying the epidemic of rural farm murders—exposing what many local critics have argued for years: that these attacks are not simply “ordinary crime.”

The DRL’s findings stem from a recent fact-finding mission to South Africa, which revealed the disturbing rise in rural violence, with 296 farm attacks and 49 murders in 2023, and 55 farm murders reported already in 2024. Many victims were elderly, isolated, and subjected to horrific brutality. Critically, many of these attacks involved no theft, suggesting motives far more sinister than opportunistic robbery.

“These are not ordinary crimes,” the DRL stated. “In some documented cases, victims were tortured or killed without anything being stolen.”

The Bureau went further, citing an incident in which perpetrators chanted “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer”—a chant notoriously echoed by EFF leader Julius Malema, captured on video, addressing supporters. In at least one documented farm attack, graffiti praising Malema was sprayed on the property before a brutal assault occurred.

Despite the evidence, South Africa’s leadership has largely remained silent, and mainstream media has routinely dismissed or ignored the targeting of farmers, framing these as merely part of the country’s high crime rates. The U.S. thread stands in stark contrast, making it clear that rural violence in South Africa displays a “distinctly brutal pattern” that demands international attention.

From a diplomatic standpoint, the implications are equally serious. The DRL warned that South Africa’s “breakdown in law and order” undermines its economic and geopolitical promise, directly threatening collaboration with the United States.

This shift in tone from Washington is significant. While past administrations often toed the line on domestic South African issues, this new stance represents a direct condemnation of government inaction, and perhaps more tellingly, an indictment of political rhetoric that fuels racial division and violence.

Why, then, has this issue been dismissed for so long by South African elites and their international allies? What does it say about the moral compass of global human rights discourse when atrocities are tolerated for political convenience?

And perhaps more importantly—now that the United States has openly challenged the prevailing narrative—will the South African government act, or continue to deny, deflect, and distract?

In support of @POTUS Executive Orders, DRL just returned from a trip to South Africa to learn more about rural farm attacks and the breakdown of rule of law. Here’s what we found🧵[1/6]

— Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor (DRL) (@StateDRL) July 28, 2025