South Africa law at centre of Trump row challenged in court
A legal challenge against a controversial new land seizure law at the centre of a row with US President Donald Trump has been filed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), which is part of South Africa’s coalition government.
The Expropriation Act allows for private land to be seized by the government without compensation in certain cases.
Trump has frozen foreign aid to the country as a result, alleging that land is being confiscated already.
The government, which is made up of 10 parties led by the African National Congress (ANC), said the US president’s actions were based on “a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation”.
The ANC was forced into a power-sharing deal last year after losing its parliamentary majority, for the first time in three decades, in May’s general election.
The DA, which is the coalition’s second largest party, has called the Expropriation Act unconstitutional, arguing that no democratic government should be given powers to seize property without compensation.
The party said that South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa signed it into law against its advice.
Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa, with most private farmland owned by white people 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.
But in its argument against the Expropriation Act, the majority-white DA has said that the apartheid government used similar powers to remove native communities from their land and added that it wants to protect property rights for all South Africans.
“This history teaches us that true redress requires protecting property rights, ensuring that no government is ever given unchecked expropriation powers ever again,” the party said in a statement.
In a statement last week, the DA said that it was deeply concerned about the threat by Trump to halt funding.
The ANC said no land has been seized without compensation and added this would only happen in exceptional circumstances, such as if land was needed for public use and all other avenues to acquire the land had been exhausted.
Trump’s executive order over the weekend freezing aid said the US “cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country”.
It also said as long as South Africa “continues these unjust and immoral practices” then the US will not provide aid or assistance.
The White House said Washington will also formulate a plan to resettle South African farmers and their families as refugees.
It said US officials will take steps to prioritise humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.
President Ramaphosa has said he will send envoys to various countries to explain the government’s recent policy changes, including the Expropriation Act.
Key partner in South Africa unity gov’t seeks to annul land reform act
By AFP Published on: February 10, 2025
The second-largest partner in South Africa’s unity government said Monday it had launched a court bid to annul an “unconstitutional” land expropriation act that has sparked a major spat with US President Donald Trump.
President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a bill last month that stipulates the government may, in certain circumstances, offer “nil compensation” for property it decides to expropriate in the public interest.
Trump, whose ally Elon Musk was born in South Africa under apartheid, alleges the law allows land to be seized from white farmers and has issued an order to freeze aid to South Africa.
Land ownership remains a contentious issue in South Africa, with most farmland still owned by white people three decades after the end of apartheid.
It is a legacy of a policy of expropriating land from the black population that endured during apartheid and the colonial period before it.
“The DA has filed papers in the High Court to challenge the recently signed Expropriation Act, because the Act is unconstitutional, both substantively and procedurally,” the Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa’s only white-led party, said in a statement.
“The Act is vague and contradictory in several clauses,” the pro-business DA added.
Ramaphosa’s African National Congress failed to win enough votes in elections last May to govern alone, a first since the party took power in 1994 and ended decades of white-minority apartheid rule.
It was forced into an uneasy coalition with the former opposition DA, which heads six ministries, and eight other parties.
The new law allows the government, as a matter of public interest, to decide on expropriations without compensation but only in certain exceptional circumstances where it would be “just and equitable”.
The act replaces a 1975 apartheid-era law to align it with the post-apartheid constitution.
It has fuelled fears of a similar scenario as in Zimbabwe in the 2000s when thousands of white farmers were stripped of their land.
White South Africans make up around seven percent of the population, according to data from 2022.
South Africa on Saturday condemned a “campaign of misinformation” after Trump claimed the law would “enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation”.
The White colonial and ruthless apartheid government grabbed all land in South Africa in 1913.
1913 Natives Land Act Centenary
During June 2013, government marks the centenary of the promulgation of the 1913 Natives Land Act [PDF] that saw thousands of black families forcibly removed from their land by the apartheid government. The centenary provides the country with the opportunity to reflect on the negative effects that this legislation had, and continues to have on our people.
The Act became law on 19 June 1913 limiting African land ownership to 7 percent and later 13 percent through the 1936 Native Trust and Land Act of South Africa.
The Act restricted black people from buying or occupying land except as employees of a white master. It opened the door for white ownership of 87 percent of land, leaving black people to scramble for what was left.
Once the law was passed, the apartheid government began the mass relocation of black people to poor homelands and to poorly planned and serviced townships.
No longer able to provide for themselves and their families, people were forced to look for work far away from their homes. This marked the beginning of socio-economic challenges the country is facing today such as landlessness, poverty and inequality.
The Land Act was finally repealed when The Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act, 1991 (Act No. 108 of 1991) came into force on 30 June 1991.
Under Apartheid laws, 7.3% of the population who were white owned 87% of all land in South Africa. Black people in South Africa who are 81.4% of the population were only allowed to have 13% of the land and then we have Indians in SA who are 8.2% and they have nothing in terms of land.
Black Africans were confined to places like Soweto by the Apartheid racist rulers
Soweto, urban complex in Gauteng province, South Africa. Originally set aside by the South African white government for residence by blacks, it adjoins the city of Johannesburg.
The Soweto Uprising: Visit these five landmarks on Youth Day
Youth Day is celebrated annually on 16 June. Here are five historic landmarks you can visit in Johannesburg to commemorate the 1976 Soweto Uprising.
THE SOWETO UPRISING
On 16 June 1976, Soweto pupils peacefully protested against the introduction of the Bantu Education Act which made Afrikaans the medium of instruction in black schools. The protest spread across the country and police officers fired teargas and live ammunition on the pupils.
This resulted in a widespread revolt that turned into an uprising against the government according to SA History. Official reports stated that 23 pupils were killed. However, some reports claim that the figure sat at at least 200
Nelson Mandela and how young South Africans view his legacy
When South Africa got rid of apartheid in 1994 and Nelson Mandela became the president the land issue was explosive. Black South Africans wanted their land back and they were ready to invade those big farms owned by the white people who grabbed them.
Mandela being Mandela stuck to the principles of his party the ANC which says South Africa belongs to all who live there. Mandela opted for a land ownership transition system with no violence or land grabbing.
To save South Africa from a post apartheid war Nelson Mandela help set up the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) under the leadership of Desmond Tutu.
Do truth and reconciliation commissions heal divided nations?
In this October 1998 photo, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu dance after Tutu handed over the final report of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Pretoria. As long as unresolved historic injustices continue to fester in the world, there will be a demand for truth commissions.
Because of the tremendous respect South Africans including their freedom fighters have for Mandela that transition has been going on without violence and that is what the current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is doing.
If Donald Trump wants to take this issue back to the war grounds then there are millions of black South Africans who would love that to happen and they will be very ready for it.
If that is that what Donald Trump wants he can get that very quickly. But then again even Donald Trump does not know what he wants politically. He is just a political moron and he is fine with that. Great.
The one person the entire apartheid regime was scared off was the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of The Nation) boss, Martin Thembisile Chris Hani. Apartheid forces murdered him right in front of his house on April, 10, 1993 to make sure he would never take office after Nelson Mandela retires. Chris Hani had no patience with white racism in South Africa and that is why he led a military rebellion against them and succeeded.
SACP, Hani family reiterate call for inquest into Chris Hani’s assassination
Freedom fighter Chris Hani
The war to free South African from Apartheid was very tough and if Trump wants to revive it he is very much welcome.
And down here is the Umkhonto We Sizwe documentary of courage and resilience by the South African freedom fighters.
