US Government Reduces PEPFAR Funding for South Africa Over Afrikaner Protection Concerns

• The United States of America government has raised further concerns about the protection of Afrikaners in South Africa
• A US State Department official said its latest decision was to "foster self-reliance" in South Africa and reduce dependency on American funding
• Donald Trump has continually claimed that terrible things were happening in South Africa, even offering refugee status to Afrikaners

Byron Pillay, a Briefly News journalist, has dedicated a decade to reporting on the South African political landscape, crime, and social issues. He worked as a newspaper journalist for 10 years before transitioning to online.

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States of America government has announced that it will stop funding programmes in South Africa that are intended to tackle the spread of HIV and Aids.

The government announced that the decision was linked to the South African government’s ‘failure to protect the white-minority Afrikaner community’.

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Donald Trump has long claimed that Afrikaners were persecuted in the country, saying that their lands were being taken and they were being killed. The Trump administration has even offered refugee status to Afrikaners and other minorities who believe they are unsafe in the country.

US confirms a phased drawdown of PEPFAR funding

When Trump came into office, he announced that funding would be cut to South Africa because of the ‘terrible things that were happening’ in the country. PEPFAR funding, which accounted for about a fifth of South Africa's total spending on HIV programmes, got a reprieve in October 2025, thanks to a ‘bridge plan’.

A US State Department official has now confirmed that a "phased drawdown" of PEPFAR funding would start. The official said that this was because of ‘South Africa's failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration’.

The US requested that farm attacks and farm murders in South Africa be classified as priority crimes by the government and that the African National Congress publicly condemn and distance itself from the "Kill the Boer" and "Kill the Farmer" chants.

It also requested that any property expropriation must only happen after all legal processes have been exhausted, and must include fair compensation to the property owners, and lastly that American companies operating in South Africa be exempted from Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) legislation.

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The official said that the intention of the US government was to "foster self-reliance" in South Africa and reduce dependency on American funding.

What you need to know about claims made against South Africa

• The FW De Klerk Foundation has rubbished Donald Trump's claims about racial discrimination.
• Donald Trump deleted a tweet claiming that South Africa was a dangerous place.
• The US State Department has explained why it is unhappy with South Africa at the moment.
• The US President offered citizenship to farmers and their families if they don’t feel safe in South Africa.
• Elon Musk claimed on X that the media weren’t reporting on the genocide in South Africa.
• Trump claimed that South Africa had a policy of exterminating people, which is why he would not attend the G20.

Trump doubles down on white genocide in South Africa claims

Briefly News also reported that Trump maintained that there’s a white genocide taking place in South Africa, insisting that it needs to be stopped.

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The President of the United States has previously falsely stated that a section of the population was being persecuted in the country.

He even offered South Africans refuge in the US if they felt that they were being persecuted in the country.

Source: Briefly News