Trump rapped over SA land reform rant
SOUTH AFRICA’S land reform is long overdue and attempts by United States President Mr Donald Trump to muddy the programme is clear testimony of his administration’s contempt of the black man’s self-determination, political analysts said yesterday.
Mr Trump drew brickbats from the region after he said Washington would investigate “land seizures” and alleged “large-scale killing” of farmers in South Africa.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) recently passed a resolution to expropriate land from white farmers without compensation.
The revolutionary party wants to change the Constitution to correct imbalances which have seen whites controlling 70 percent of South Africa’s land.
Zimbabwe addressed the land ownership issue in the 2000s, a move that invited illegal sanctions from the US and some Western countries.
The country remains under the sanctions regime which Mr Trump renewed a few days before the just-ended harmonised elections.
“I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and large-scale killing of farmers,” Mr Trump said on Twitter.
South Africa immediately hit back at Mr Trump, accusing him of stoking racial divisions.
“South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past,” the South African government said.
The Word Bank, which remained mum when Zimbabwe was being punished by the US for taking back its land, is supporting land reform in South Africa.
In its latest report, the international financial institution said South Africa’s transition remained incomplete because “the highly skewed distribution of land and productive assets is a source of inequality and social fragility, fuelling contestation over resources.”
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said they were not moved by Mr Trump’s threats. “We are not scared,” he said. “We are not moved! We know that Britain will follow with the same madness; because for them black people in this country must remain landless in the country of their birth.
“Imperialism will not succeed this time! The world is no longer the one of Bush & Blair,’’ he said.
Political analyst Mr Richard Mahomva said Mr Trump’s move showed that the West was
preoccupied with protecting the rights of the colonial Diaspora when it came to economic enrichment.
“The reaction of Trump to South Africa’s much awaited agrarian revolution benchmarks the common cause of white supremacy’s defiance to black self-determination,” he said.
“He is not making any new submission here but simply reigniting the West’s proposition to perpetuate the asymmetrical order of black and white economic marginalisation. His pronouncement is a furtherance of what landed ZIDERA victimhood in 2001 when the poor land-hungry Zimbabweans demanded their land back from the colonial settler capitalist farmers.”
Another political analyst, Mr Tafadzwa Mugwadi, weighed in: “This reflects a dangerous mindset of a man who thinks that Africans must remain aliens to their own God-given land. He and his government are doing worse things through anti-migration policies targeting the blacks and Muslims yet South Africa is simply reclaiming what is historically and naturally theirs and addressing historical imbalances over land ownership. Zimbabwe showed the way and South Africa is just doing what was long overdue. The revolutionary and progressive people of South Africa must never be taken aback by this Trump baloney.”
He added: “It is also interesting to note that the same Trump has just renewed illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe, hence the threat of sanctions should not come as a surprise to President Cyril Ramaphosa.”
Political analyst Mr Goodwine Mureriwa said it was clear the US’s interest was not on democracy, good governance and the rule of law but self-enrichment.
“They want to protect a skewed colonial land tenure system that favours minority whites in the region,” he said.
“The US violates and abuses international law to further their hegemony in our mineral-rich region. They want free access to these resources and disregard sovereignty of states while seeking to override national laws.
“They are rapacious and predatory aggressors masquerading as champions of civilisation. Liberation movements in SADC should unite and push for attainment of total economic freedom and independence. Intrusion for manipulative and exploitative relations is condemned. We want partners not masters.”