British TV Show Infuriates South Africans Living in the UK

A new documentary series on ITV about South Africa has infuriated South Africans living in the UK.

The first episode of the On Assignment series was aired last night. According to viewers, it showed white South African farmers practicing at a rifle range, and included an interview with a distressed woman who said she had only two options: to leave South Africa or be killed… although the presenter speaks over her and says “to kill or be killed”, to which she agrees.

Several expats have taken to social media to complain that the programme was “biased propaganda” and “annoying”, presenting white people as the “baddies”, and that it did not represent most South Africans. One said that in decades of living in the UK she’d never seen a “true” reflection of South Africa on UK television.

ITV News Africa Correspondent John Ray begins the show with the following introduction: “Twenty-five years since the end of apartheid in South Africa, the country is still wrestling with its legacy.

“Vast swathes of farmland are still owned by the white minority, and now the government is considering seizing the land and handing it over to the millions of poor black farmers, dispossessed generations ago by Boer settlers.”

ITV says it travelled across South Africa “meeting those desperate to get back the land of their ancestors, and those who are taking up arms to protect their property.”

One of SAPeople’s contributors in England sat down to watch the show and see what the fuss was about. This is the report she sent us: “Okay, it’s just a minute or two in and I want to turn it off.” A couple of minutes later: “I am not watching anymore. It’s all about race. There is huge racial tension in the UK. I’m tired of it. I refuse to watch anymore after just hearing his introduction – can’t people get over the race issue or stop playing it!?”

She added: “The international community still doesn’t quite get it. We love our land. I would LOVE to be back there… but living in the countryside, not behind gates and bars…”

PLEASE NOTE: SAPeople has since watched the full programme – please see update here:

UK programme shows glimpse of positive future for South Africans working together