Few people in the world generate more consensus than the South African politician Nelson Mandela. His story is unrepeatable: after almost three decades in prison, imprisoned by the white supremacist regime that had ruled South Africa since 1948, Mandela won the country's first democratic elections in 1994. With the support of the majority of the black population, he governed without a spirit of revenge against the whites who had turned racial segregation into a state policy. Many whites, who feared being expropriated and losing everything at the hands of an extremist leader, were surprised by the kindness of Mandela – whom, a few years earlier, many had considered a dangerous terrorist–.

Thousands of migrants crowded around plastic bags, boxes and trash bags with the belongings they managed to salvage, and women hiding babies under blankets. This was the image of recent weeks in a camp in a South African city after anti-immigrant activists asked undocumented foreigners to leave the country before June 30. An image that contrasts with that of this Tuesday: empty streets, businesses with their shutters down, deserted transport stations and a strong police presence. This is how several South African cities woke up on a day marked by demonstrations called by the anti-immigrant group March and March and the opposition party ActionSA, who have set June 30 as the deadline for irregular immigrants to leave the country.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered a reduction in refugee admissions to just 7,500 per year, the lowest number since the program began in 1980. He also prioritized one specific nationality: refugee status will be granted "primarily" to South Africans, described as "white South Africans" who are "illegal" in their countries of origin, according to a document released Thursday night by the White House. Former President Joe Biden also limited the number of refugees, but the cap was 125,000, and Trump himself set a maximum threshold of 15,000 during his previous term, making this 7,500 the lowest limit to date. When he took office on January 20, Trump halted most refugee admissions to the country through an executive order arguing that the program was "detrimental" to the nation's interests. The few exceptions he has made to this restriction have been the Afrikaners (South Africans descended from Dutch settlers), who have been admitted to the United States, even transferred to the country as a group from South Africa after Trump falsely claimed that They are being victims of a "genocide"These controversies Trump's statements strained relations between the African country and the Washington government, after the South African executive approved a land expropriation law at the end of January.

The day after The meeting between the presidents of the United States, Donald Trump, and South Africa, Cyril RamaphosaAt the White House, several media outlets have published reports that question or directly refute some of the statements made by the American leader denouncing an alleged "genocide" against the white minority in the African country. The American received his South African counterpart in the Oval Office a week later. to grant asylum to 49 white South Africans, and accused him on camera while showing him videos and published articles that supposedly supported his claim. "All white farmers being buried," Trump said, showing an article accompanied by a photo that was a screenshot of a Reuters video. The agency explained that its own fact-checking team verified that it was a video recorded on February 3 that shows aid workers lifting body bags in Goma. during the battles between the government and the M23 guerrillas.