STATEMENT Farm victims should not be political props Afrikaners for South Africa (AfSA) strongly condemns Lex Libertas’s planned display of 3 000 white crosses in Washington, DC. We believe the campaign exploits the suffering of farm victims to advance a narrow political agenda, presents Americans with a misleading picture of South Africa and risks deepening racial divisions at home. We are Afrikaners. We unequivocally condemn farm killings and all violence against farming communities. Victims deserve justice, survivors need support, and rural safety requires urgent action. Our concern is that their suffering is being used to tell a misleading story and advance a private political agenda. The evidence does not support a campaign of racial persecution: South Africa’s violent-crime crisis affects every community, including black farmers and farmworkers. Research indicates that farm attacks are driven mainly by robbery and other criminal motives rather than by a coordinated campaign of racial persecution. This does not rule out racial hatred in a handful of individual attacks, but it challenges the picture the cross campaign presents. Grief is not a mandate for self-governance: Lex Libertas openly links the crosses to its personal pursuit of American support for white “self-governance” (lexlibertas.org.za/campaigns…). That political ambition deserves scrutiny on its own merits. The deaths of farm victims cannot serve as a mandate for it. The organisers should explain what this spectacle will achieve for those still living with the threat of violence. Will it improve policing, speed up emergency responses, or provide lasting support for grieving families? Its success should be measured in those terms, not in headlines or political theatre. South Africans could pay the price: The distorted narrative could discourage tourism and investment in South Africa. Within South Africa, it can inflame racial suspicion and undermine cooperation between communities whose safety depends on one another. The Trump administration’s aid cuts, visa restrictions and threats of further action suggest that South Africa is already being used to score political points in the US. With American midterm elections approaching, we fear this display will give that campaign fresh ammunition. South Africans should not pay the price for a small faction’s political point-scoring and fundraising in America. Lex Libertas and its associates speak for a minority: Lex Libertas does not speak for all Afrikaners or all South Africans. We ask Americans to listen to a wider range of South African voices and, should they wish, support practical and honest efforts to reduce violence across all communities. Honour all victims. Demand the full picture. Help us build a safer, more united South Africa.