Dirco criticised after X post wrongly claimed SA has largest white population in southern hemisphere

The department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco) faced public criticism after an official post on X suggested that South Africa has the largest white population in the southern hemisphere and included a misspelt hashtag, #unty, instead of what appeared to be #unity.

What Dirco posted and the correction

The department’s X account published the claim and later posted an amended version. The substantive wording was corrected, but the misspelt hashtag #UntyInDiversity remained in the amended post, drawing attention on social media.

Errors flagged by reputation practitioner

Dionne Collett of Take Note Reputation Management said official government communication should meet a higher standard and be grounded in verified facts.

“The main core of reputation management is always to stick to what are the facts and what is the truth in your communications to your stakeholders,”

Collett said social media content should receive the same scrutiny as other organisational communication and recommended multiple checks before publication.

“It should be checked at least twice before it actually goes onto social media,”

She warned of the permanence of online posts:

“Once it’s up on social media, it’s done. It’s there.”

How the claim compares with available figures cited in the report

The Citizen report notes comparative population figures that contradict Dirco’s claim. It cites Brazil’s 2022 census recording 88.2 million people who self-identified as white and states South Africa’s white population is about 4.5 million according to Statistics SA’s 2025 estimates.

The report also notes that Chile has just more than double South Africa’s Caucasian count, Argentina is described as being close to 40 million, and Australia’s white population is estimated at around 20–27 million.

Concerns about trust and process

Collett said the mistake was avoidable and that a quick online check would have turned up countries with larger white populations than South Africa.

“On a quick Google search, those were the countries that came up immediately to me, stating that they have a higher concentration of white people than South Africa,”

She added that while the error may not be catastrophic for Dirco’s reputation, repeated mistakes risk eroding trust in official communications.

“I don’t think it causes damage to their reputation, but more to the trust value of the communication being put out there,”