For years, certain civil rights groups and some political parties in SA have been deliberately pushing a false narrative to the world that genocide is being carried out against white people, particularly farmers, and that the government is gearing up to seize all their land.
This misinformation has gained traction, especially among those outside SA who choose to ignore the facts.
The signing of the Land Expropriation Bill into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January has only fuelled these distortions, giving them yet another excuse to spread alarmist propaganda.
US President Donald Trump has now jumped on this bandwagon of misinformation and disinformation, making reckless statements and decisions which could have severe consequences for SA’s economy.
On Sunday, Trump announced on social media that he would be cutting all future funding to SA, citing the country’s land expropriation laws as one of the “terrible things” justifying his decision.
Without offering a shred of evidence, he claimed that the SA government was “unfairly” confiscating land and that certain groups were being treated “very badly”.
This kind of inflammatory rhetoric directly threatens trade relations between the two countries and could deal a significant blow to SA’s economy.
The rand tumbled on Monday morning, trading at a high of R19 to the dollar.
Ramaphosa has rightly rejected Trump’s assertions, reiterating that SA remains a constitutional democracy governed by the rule of law, justice, and equality.
“The SA government has not confiscated any land,” he said in a statement.
The Land Expropriation Act enables the state to expropriate land in the public interest for various reasons within the framework of the constitution, specifically section 25 of the constitution, which protects property rights.
It has drawn criticism from the some political parties and lobby groups, and, most recently, Trump adviser Elon Musk, who was born in SA.
The facts remain that there are no land grabs taking place in SA, certainly none sanctioned by the government, and there is no “white genocide”.
The continued peddling of these blatant falsehoods is reckless and dangerous.
As we are beginning to see, such misinformation does not come without real-world consequences.
The Herald
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