Evidence of alleged mass killings of white South Africans presented by Donald Trump at a tense White House meeting on Wednesday was in some cases photos from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and footage shown during the meeting was falsely presented as showing "burial sites", points out "The Guardian, writes BTA.
"These are all white farmers who are buried", Trump said, holding a printout of an article, accompanied by a photo, during an Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The photo accompanying the article is actually a screenshot of a video published by Reuters on February 3 and later verified by the news agency's fact-checking team, showing aid workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was taken from Reuters footage filmed after deadly fighting with Rwandan-backed M23 rebels.
The White House did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.
At another point during the meeting, Trump released a video that he said proved that genocide was being committed against white people in South Africa. It included footage that Trump claimed showed the graves of more than a thousand white farmers marked with white crosses.
The footage – filmed on a highway connecting the small towns of Newcastle and Normandeen in South Africa - actually showed a memorial site, not graves.
Rob Houghton, who created the memorial to attract public attention, told the BBC that it was not a burial site.
"This is a memorial. It was not a permanent memorial that was erected. It was a temporary memorial," he said. The memorial was erected after the murder of two Afrikaner farmers in the local community.
The video, released by Trump on Wednesday, contained several lies and inaccuracies, but was intended to support the president's proposal for a "sanctuary" for persecuted white farmers, which angered the South African government, which disputed the claims, according to the "Guardian". The White House claims that it shows evidence of genocide against white farmers in South Africa. This conspiracy theory, which has been circulating among the far-right for years, is based on false claims.
The video prominently features Julius Malema, a politician known for his radical rhetoric. In several clips, he is seen wearing the red beret of his populist, Marxist-inspired party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), and chanting calls for "slitting the throats of whiteness" (“cut the throat of whiteness”), as well as the controversial anti-apartheid song “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer”.
Trump inaccurately claimed to be a civil servant, implying that his inflammatory slogans reflected official policy against the white minority in South Africa.
Malema is an opposition politician who became known for his support for radical reforms, including land redistribution and the nationalization of key economic sectors, the “Guardian” points out.
In last year's elections, the party came in fourth place with 9.5% of the vote. During the Oval Office meeting, Ramaphosa and his delegation distanced themselves from Malema's rhetoric.
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, a member of the center-right Democratic Alliance, told Trump that he had joined Ramaphosa's multi-party coalition "precisely to keep these people out of power."