In an all-too-familiar display of ignorance, United States President Donald Trump recently denounced South Africa’s new Expropriation Act, falsely framing it as a racially driven attack on the white minority. His remarks, steeped in misinformation, echo the rhetoric of far-right groups that have long sought to delegitimise South Africa’s efforts to correct centuries of land dispossession.While Trump is well within his rights to withhold US aid – money South Africa neither relies upon nor seeks – he has no business interfering in a sovereign nation’s attempt to address historical injustice. His inflammatory comments are not just misguided; they are dangerous. South Africa, a country that emerged from the brutal system of apartheid only 30 years ago, remains deeply scarred by racial and economic inequality. The land question is at the heart of these unresolved wounds, and reckless statements from the US president risk inflaming tensions in a society still striving for justice.
But perhaps the greatest irony of all is that the US itself has expropriation laws under its Fifth Amendment. The notion that land can be taken for public good, with or without compensation, is not new – it is foundational to US property law. So why, then, does Trump feign outrage when South Africa follows a similar path? Advertisement
This irony pales in comparison to Trump’s remarks about “taking over” Gaza and making it “ours” after Israel’s mass destruction and genocide in Palestine. Expropriating land within one’s borders is one thing; ethnic clea …
