Ulrich Janse van Vuuren has made it his passion to share and showcase some of South Africa’s best features with his legion of social media followers.
The 38-year-old white South African often takes snapshots capturing scenes such as a cold Johannesburg morning, the purple Jacaranda trees famously associated with Pretoria or Cape Town’s popular beachfronts.
“Promoting South Africa is something I am passionate about – I have no intention of taking up [US President Donald Trump’s] offer because South Africa is my home,” the proud Afrikaner tells the BBC, days after a small group of his fellow white compatriots left South Africa for their new life as refugees in the US.
The US president, and his South-Africa born ally Elon Musk, says that white Afrikaners are being persecuted in their home country, and that they are being subjected to a “genocide”.
This is a claim that has been circulating for many years even though it has been widely discredited.
Although some white farmers have been attacked and killed, South Africa has one of the world’s highest murder rates, so this is an issue that affects all of its citizens, whatever their race.
“For me, South Africa is home. It’s a place where my roots and heritage are, where I can contribute to the story of our nation and make a meaningful impact,” said Mr Janse van Vuuren, who has more than one million followers on social media.
“I’m deeply invested in South Africa’s success and I am proud to be part of its journey.”
And while he wished those who have taken up Trump’s offer all the best in the US and urged them to “not look back”, he insisted that none of them were refugees, but rather “opportunists”.
“They’ve enjoyed more than their share of South Africa’s resources and privileges, and none are fleeing racial persecution,” he said.
Thirty years after the end of the racist system of apartheid, average living standards among South Africa’s white community remain far higher than for the black majority.
Mr Janse van Vuuren said that the debate about the status of Afrikaners in South Africa had only served to make him “more determined than ever to step up and contribute to South Africa in every way I can”.
Four centuries after the first group of Dutch settlers arrived in what is now South Africa, most Afrikaners regard themselves as fully African – as seen in the name – and no longer identify with their European roots.
But many are unhappy both with the high crime rate and the government’s policies aimed at reducing economic inequality in the country – especially a law passed earlier this year that allowed the government to seize land without compensation “when it is just and equitable and in the public interest”. White South Africans are 7% of the country’s population, but own half of its farmland.
Some Afrikaners are farmers and see the law as being aimed at them.
Trump said the legislation prompted him to offer to help resettle “Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination”.
The status of white South African farmers has long been a rallying cry on the right and far-right of American politics.
But despite numerous claims in the past of the systematic targeting of the country’s white Afrikaner minority group, local crime statistics figures paint a different picture.
South Africa does not release crime figures based on race but the latest figures revealed that 6,953 people were murdered in the country between October and December 2024. Of these, 12 were killed in farm attacks. Of the 12, one was a farmer, while five were farm dwellers and four were employees, who are likely to have been black.