In a seemingly desolate landscape near a farm, rows of white crosses stand starkly against the earth, each representing a life lost.
These crosses, numbering nearly 3,000, form the Witkruis Monument, a memorial dedicated exclusively to white individuals killed on South African farms over the past three decades.
Erected by the Afrikaner minority, the monument has become a focal point in a contentious narrative surrounding farm killings in South Africa.
While intended as a tribute, the memorial has been seized upon by some to propagate the idea that white farmers are victims of a systematic, racially motivated persecution in the country.
This narrative, amplified by figures such as Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump, has drawn criticism for its inaccuracy, with Trump even using the term “genocide” to describe the violence against white farmers.
The South African government and experts who have studied farm killings have publicly denounced the misinformation spread by Trump and others.
Even the caretaker of Witkruis says the monument — which makes no reference to the hundreds of Black South African farmers and farmworkers who have been killed — does not tell the complete story.
The killings of farmers and farmworkers, regardless of race, are a tiny percentage of the country’s high level of crime, and they typically occur during armed robberies, according to available statistics and two studies carried out over the last 25 years.
Yet because wealthier white people own 72 per cent of South Africa’s privately owned farms, according to census data, they are disproportionately affected by these often brutal crimes. Black people own just 4 per cent of the country’s privately owned farmland, and the rest is owned by people who are mixed race or of Indian heritage.
Misinformation about farm killings has been fueled by right-wing political groups in South Africa and others outside the country, said Gareth Newman, a crime expert at the Institute for Security Studies think tank in Pretoria.
Some of the fringe South African groups, which hold no official power, boycotted the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, when South Africa’s apartheid system of white minority rule officially ended. They have espoused a debunked theory of persecution — in a country where whites make up about 7 per cent of the population — ever since.
“They held on to these beliefs as a way of maintaining social cohesion in their groups, making sure that they can obtain funding and support,” Newman said. “And they were getting support from right-wing groups abroad because it fit their narrative.”
The Witkruis Monument was started in 2004 but recognises victims going back to 1994.
Each year, more crosses are planted to memorialise white farmers and their family members who were killed, organisers say. Recently, they’ve planted around 50 crosses a year.
