GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General
30 May 2025
US President Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser may just have saved South Africa’s faltering relationship with the Western superpower.
In a statement published while visiting South Africa, today, Pastor Mark Burns, the televangelist and board member of Pastors for Trump, who is widely described as President Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser, firmly debunked claims of a white genocide and suggested that Afrikaner refugees admitted into the US a few weeks ago were opportunists.
He said many of the White people he had engaged with in South Africa viewed Trump as a great President, but believed the President had been misinformed of a genocide “by people who wanted an excuse to leave”.
The people he had met with included “White farmers, White business owners, and even some former Apartheid leaders”.
He said: “They agree that the song sung by Julius Malema, ‘Kill the Boer,’ is divisive and shouldn’t be part of the national conversation. It fuels unnecessary tension. But when it comes to actual targeted killings or a genocide of White South Africans, that’s just not the reality on the ground. What is real is the devastatingly high crime rate across the country, with most of the victims being Black South Africans.”
Pastor Burns said the Oval Office meeting between President Trump and President Ramaphosa had delivered “three powerful things”: The white genocide claim had united the country, it had forced crime to the top of the national agenda, and it had led to a discussion about re-modelling Black Economic Empowerment “to make sure it benefits everyone”.
Pastor Burns’ statement, published on his account on X (formerly Twitter) this morning, is a well-timed assessment of conditions in South Africa from someone President Trump trusts, and an important intervention.
We thank Pastor Burns for his courage and his truth.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za