Donald Trump and the tortured history of South Africa’s land

Donald Trump has long been busy with land in South Africa’s most fulfilling and sensitive domestic policy issues.

In his first term, the US President instructed his then Secretary of Secretary Mike Pompeoke-Twitter to study “South African land and farm itching closely and” the “large-scale killings of farmers”.

This week he repeated these pet theories in the face of the Oval Office with South African President Cyril Ramafosa, who closed his eyes at one point and thought he would make himself calm. Trump’s main claim was that South Africa’s “officials” were saying “Kill the white farmer and take their land”.

South Africans know the image is very different on the ground. The most recent land was seized under racism, while South Africa’s 87 percent of the land was reserved for white people, who were below the fifth of the population.

The brutal evictions forced about 3.5 million black people from their ancestral land, which were often seized without compensation and sold to white farmers at a lower price.

After the country became a multipurpose democracy in the 5th, white farmers still kept about 122 million hectares of land in the country.

This racism era has shaped today’s South Africa.

“They are very divided,” said Ayesha Omar, a lecturer at the University of Witwaiterrand. “There was a deep way here where people snatched their land … and of course the whole question of dignity was.”

Today, white farmers still own about half of the country, though only per cent of the citizens are white. The lack of formal access to the land has prevented the black majority and other historians prevented the underprivileged groups, including orrow to be tied to business possibilities, including taking off the security.

The newly opened government of Nelson Mandela tried to solve this balance in the 5th. Target it Reduction of the third Histor is the land of the Histor Tihasis, including blacks through the “wish seller, wish buyer” scheme to buy the land at the market price.

The Constitution of the new democracy has allowed land confiscation in exchange for fair compensation. It has been an explosive issue for a long time, as some politicians have argued that it should be fixed to allow the land to be seized without compensation.

Omar said, “The Constitution itself addresses the surrounding questions about the historical injustice of the past on the question of land.”

A law passed in January has exposed the possibility of itching without compensation, but not a single case has yet. Democratic Alliance, a team in the Governing Coalition, has introduced a legal challenge that it is reasonable to be unconstitutional.

Progress has been much slower than the post-apartheid government expectation. To date, about 1.5 million hectares or 2.5 percent of the country’s landmas have been purchased.

It has been used for various purposes including farming, forest, tourism and hospitality, said Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Majwanet Nahantso.

“Based on the negotiating agreement of buying land from previous owners, especially from white owners,” he added.

Official goals have been repeatedly made to re -distribute the land Pushed back from two decades to 2030The The slow pace of land reform under the African National Congress of Ramfosa is the many reasons for the most unequal society in the world. Progress has also been reduced by corruption.

“South Africa does not have the ability to do what he wants to do. It is definitely much more than land transfer,” Johnny Steinberg, the author says Winnie and NelsonA book that re-examine the post-racism inheritance.

Potential new landowners need “skills and capital and market assistance”, he added.

Another tension of the process is the white minority of the black majority, an industrial proletariat in the historic class, disconnects their connections to the land.

In addition to his views on the land, Trump claimed that white farmers had faced large -scale attacks. However, in the high rates of South Africa’s violent crime, there is no evidence to face the target attack more than any other group.

In the first quarter of 2021, there were six killings on the farm, one of which was a white farmer and the rest of the black man, according to police statistics.

Last year, 26,232 people were killed in South Africa, which in the United States 100,000 per 5.8 rate of 100,000 per 100,000. At that time, the Transwal Agricultural Union, a private agricultural group, said that 32 were killed on the farm, affecting both black and white.

With the progress of gradually reform, people like Julius Malema have been showing upset among the Racist-era struggle song “Kill the Boer”-the Krishnangi citizens during the meeting of the Oval Office during the Oval Office meeting.

The Governing 10-Party Alliance minority party, Karn Muldar, the leader of the Freedom Front Plus of Africa’s interest, has already blamed Ramphosa not to address the difference with Trump for calling the Oval Office a “absolute diplomatic disaster”.

However, he claimed that Trump used “genocide” claim “strategically” to highlight violence against white farmers.

Trump has repeatedly quoted a law enacted in January that allowed the government to seize the land in person – most of which remained white – for public use. Experts have compared the law, known as the “prominent domain” with the power of the US government passed without constitutional change.

This law works through separate measures from the broad land reform policy of the government. Analysts say that it is more likely to be used in the case of involvement, for example, internal-city buildings are abandoned where the owner cannot be found.

It specifies that the courts think it is “justified and equitable”, no compensation should be paid. To today, that provision has not been called.

His South African -born billionaire adviser, request by Elon Kasturi, claimed that the law aimed at occupying the land from white people and launched a refugee plan to rehabilitate African minorities in the United States. Washington claims that the party, who first seek their roots to the first Dutch settlers in 822, “victims of unfair racial discrimination”.

However, some Africans have expressed interest in transferring. “We only know that we are drowning with people with white farmers in South Africa,” Trump says Trump says his administration refer to 4 Africans who arranged to fly to the United States this month.

In commercial agriculture of South Africa, which competes worldwide with countries, including Australia and Brazil, farmers are much more concerned about the US proposal for 30 percent blanket tariffs on products in their country.

Not far from fleeing the country, mainly white African farmers have helped to increase export – mainly consisting of fruits and wine – $ 2 billion from $ 2 billion to 2021 in 2021. The industry has exported $ 5.7 billion worth of goods last year.

As the overall economic growth is less than 1 percent of the annual, one of the South African industries remains a farmer, which has been less than 1 percent annually and one -third of the people are out of work.

One of South African Agricultural Business Chamber Chief Economist Wadil Sihloo says the agricultural sector was currently supported by commercial banks with a financing of about 220bn rand ($ 12.3 billion) from commercial banks.

“This financing shows the level of confidence in the current land reform process,” said Sihlobo, a president’s economic adviser. “In a sector under the siege you don’t sell $ 14 billion products.”

David Pilling’s Additional Report in London