Allegations of treason in South Africa – after Donald Trump pulled the plug on aid to the country. The US president cited a new South African law allowing (in certain cases) land expropriations without compensation.
Now ex-South African president Jacob Zumba’s MK party is claiming Trump was influenced by a propaganda campaign waged by the so-called AfriForum, a group that looks out for White Afrikaner interests. The group was actively lobbying against the expropriation law in the US media ahead of the aid cancellation.
MK supporters dressed in military garb (pictured) sang anti-apartheid songs as they went to Cape Town police station to file their treason case against AfriForum. MK leader John Hlophe said, “Treason has been committed, we contend, by them [AfriForum], because they are plotting against our government.”
South Africa’s land reform is intended to correct a historical injustice. Most of the good land in the country ended up in the hands of the White Afrikaner minority. Under the new law, in certain circumstances – if deemed ‘just and equitable’ and ‘in the public interest’ – land can be seized back by the state without recompense.
In 2017, a government report revealed White settlers still held 72% of privately-owned farmland, yet they make up only 7.3% of the population, according to a 2022 census.
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