Trump: South African party accuses pro-white group of treason

Forum 17 hours ago

Trump: South African party accuses pro-white group of treason

The party of South Africa’s ex-president Jacob Zuma on Monday filed a treason complaint against AfriForum, a group championing the white Afrikaner minority, after Donald Trump attacked the country’s new law aimed at redistributing white-owned land.

It was reported that AfriForum has lobbied against the law in US media and political circles, portraying it as part of a wider onslaught against Afrikaners, and Zuma’s MK party accused it in a criminal complaint of spreading misinformation to influence Trump.

Recall that the US president last week signed an executive order cutting financial assistance to South Africa, citing the land expropriation act and Pretoria’s genocide case against Israel, Washington’s close ally, at the International Court of Justice.

According to the Trump administration, Afrikaners, the descendants of predominantly Dutch 17th century settlers, could come to the United States as refugees, lending credence to AfriForum’s complaint that they are being persecuted, which is disputed by the South African government and most political parties.

Meanwhile, the government has defended the land reform law as an attempt to rectify the injustices of the past and has pushed back against what it says is misinformation, pointing out that no expropriations have yet taken place under the law.

The white farmers are said to own three quarters of South Africa’s privately held land, while white people make up 8% of the population.

Trump’s criticism has exacerbated stark divisions on racial issues that persist in South Africa 30 years after the end of apartheid, partly because of yawning inequality between racial groups.

MK party is a populist opposition party that strongly advocates land redistribution and rose quickly to come third in last year’s general elections, taking significant support away from the ruling African National Congress, which lost its majority.

The party took its complaint against AfriForum to Cape Town’s central police station, where dozens of supporters wearing the party’s trademark green military camouflage outfits sang anti-apartheid freedom songs