South Africa Hits Trump After He Orders 'Large Scale Killing' to be Investigated

By The Western Journal August 23, 2018 at 4:35am

The South African government lashed out at President Donald Trump on Thursday after he tweeted that his administration would be looking into farm seizures and the “large scale killing of farmers” in South Africa.

The government said Trump’s tweet was based on “false information” and reflected a “narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.” It said it was meeting with the U.S. Embassy on Thursday as it seeks to clarify Trump’s remarks.

South Africa is in the throes of a racially charged national debate over land reform, a process of land seizure that seeks to correct the legacy of decades of white minority rule.

Today, nearly a quarter-century after the first democratic elections, black South Africans, who make up 80 percent of the population, own 4 percent of the country’s land, according to the government.

Though the ruling African National Congress, which has been in power since 1994, has pledged to close that gap, progress has been slow. In July, President Cyril Ramaphosa said his party would amend the constitution so the government could expropriate land without compensation.

Trump’s tweet followed a segment on Fox News on Wednesday in which host Tucker Carlson claimed Ramaphosa had already started “seizing land from his own citizens without compensation because they are the wrong skin color,” calling the alleged seizures “immoral.”

I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2018

Though South Africa’s constitution has not yet been amended and the government has not seized any major agricultural land, the prospect has sent panic through some white farming communities who worry the policy will strip them of their land, cause land prices to plummet or make them the target of potentially violent land seizures.

For years, white South Africans have claimed white farmers are the target of violent, racially motivated farm attacks.

Should the United States get involved in South African land seizures policy?

Some researchers say the attacks reflect the country’s generally high crime rate. In 2016-17, there were 74 murders that occurred during farm attacks, according to Africa Check, compared to 19,000 murders across the country in the same period.

“People are not being targeted because of their race, but because they are vulnerable and isolated on the farms,” said Gareth Newham, head of the crime and justice program at the Institute for Security Studies in the capital, Pretoria.

Trump’s tweet did find some supporters.

AfriForum, a group that represents some white South African interests, welcomed his comments. In May, its leaders went to the U.S. to lobby institutions and politicians about Ramaphosa’s proposal to expropriate land and the alleged targeting of white farmers.

Earlier this month the group posted a list of farms it said were earmarked for expropriation, a list that the government said was fake.

“Everyone in South Africa should hope that the pressure from the USA will lead to the (ruling party) reconsidering the disastrous route that they want to take South Africa on,” AfriForum’s CEO Kallie Kriel said in a statement on Thursday.

AfriForum and other critics of the government’s proposal to seize white-owned land without compensation say the policy could lead to economic disaster, pointing to the collapse of the agricultural sector in neighboring Zimbabwe after the government of former President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms, sometimes violently, in 2000.

Proponents of South Africa’s land seizure policy, including Ramaphosa, say it is necessary to address the country’s historic injustices and can be done in a way that is lawful and will not compromise the beleaguered economy or food security.

The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.

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