Chris White on August 23, 2018
South Africa accused President Donald Trump of stoking racial division Thursday after the president suggested his administration would study the country’s policy of seizing farmers’ land.
The government blasted Trump’s tweet calling out land seizures in South Africa. It called the president’s message “false information” that reflects a “narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.”
“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,” the president told his Twitter followers Wednesday.
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
South Africa is leaping headlong into a racially charged debate over land reform, which lawmakers believe will correct the legacy of white minority rule that stripped black South Africans of their land. The country is offering white farmers meager compensation for the property. The country seizes the land if the farmers refuse to sell out.
Black South Africans make up about 80 percent of the population but own just 4 percent of the country’s land, according to government officials. Lawmakers approved the motion in March brought by the radical Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party as part of a so-called “land reform” program to even the disparity in ownership between South Africa’s black majority and white minority.
Some lawmakers in the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party, along with agricultural economists, worry South Africa is taking the same path Zimbabwe did when it initiated its own mass land expropriation program in the early 2000s. Zimbabwe, under former dictator Robert Mugabe, seized and redistributed land from about 4,000 white farmers to landless black people to compensate them for years of colonial rule.
Recently, Obama began his remarks by thanking South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for, quote, “Inspiring great hope in this country.” Now if you’ve been following what’s going on in South Africa you might be shocked by that because it turns out Ramaphosa recently declared that he would change the South African constitution and he will do it for the explicit purpose of persecuting a racial minority, seizing their land without compensation not because they committed a specific crime but because they are the wrong color… Thanks to policies like this many South Africans have already been murdered in race killings and many more are fleeing the country for their lives. It’s not covered here but it’s covered in the rest of the world and it’s real.
What does it take to get the blacks to understand that the white man got them to where they are? Instead of working with whites they destroy themselves. Zimbabwe is a prime example.
The white farmers have hired an Israeli commando group to train and assist with stopping the confiscation of their lands. I would assume that the Israelis are also providing them weapons and military equipment. The badly trained and ignorant South African military will get more than they bargained for if they try to confiscate these properties.
We have no right to interfere with their country. That being said, we also have no obligation to give them any aid. Stop right now – we should mind our own business and stop giving them aid, which will also reduce our budget liability.