South Africa's murder rate is high but statistics show that most victims are young black men, contradicting US President Donald Trump's claims that a white "genocide" is under way.
Trump repeated claims that "thousands" of white farmers were being killed during a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa Wednesday.
But his claims of "white genocide" and persecution, which led him to offer "refuge" to white farmers, are baseless and distort the reality of South Africa's high crime rate.
There were more than 27,600 murders in the 2023/24 financial year, police statistics say. This averages to just over 75 a day.
Most of the victims were young, black men in urban areas, the statistics show.
On farms, plots, small holdings and other agriculture land, there were 436 murders in 2024, according to police figures that include farmers -- who are mostly white -- and black farm workers.
Statistics from the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAU SA) show farm murders average about 50 a year across all races.
While still a shocking problem, the murder of white farmers is part of a larger insecurity issue in the country, officials say.
The vast majority (82 percent) of South Africa's population of 63 million is black, with white South Africans making up just over seven percent, according to the latest figures from mid-2024.
The white population is largely made up of people descended from English settlers or the mainly Dutch colonisers who landed at the Cape around 300 years ago and speak Afrikaans.
Afrikaners have historically run most of South Africa's commercial farmland, around 72 percent of which was held by white farmers in 2017, according to the most up-to-date government figures.
- No land seizures -
Right-wing Afrikaner lobby groups that insist that white farmers are targets for murder also claim that the black-majority government intends to seize white farmland without compensation, an allegation repeated by Trump.
Analysts say the law makes it clear that the government must attempt to reach a just and equitable settlement with the property owner in order to take land that it requires in the public interest.
The clause limits cases of "nil compensation" to unproductive, abandoned or derelict land or when the property is overindebted
No farms have been expropriated in South Africa under this law, officials say.
After Trump's offer of refuge, 67,000 South Africans requested resettlement in the United States, the South African Chamber of Commerce in the United States said.
The first 59 arrived in the United States earlier in May.
