Rural violence is a huge problem in South Africa that deserves a strong response. But white people are not the only casualties.

O ne of the first things Donald Trump did on retaking office was to halt America’s programme to settle refugees. That is bad news for Africans who might want to flee war or oppression. But the White House is making an exception for a group of white Africans: the roughly 2.

Though the name of Donald Trump went unmentioned, everyone knew who Ramaphosa was talking about. A few days earlier, the US president had written on his Truth Social platform that South Africa was “confiscating land and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY”.