The culmination of the political Establishment and press at President Trump’s expression of concern for the plight of South African farmers and the ANC’s decision to expropriate land without compensation is not surprising.
No amount of anti-Trump hysteria can divert attention from the basic facts of the situation:
- The rate at which white farmers are being murdered since the ANC came to power is without precedent in a peacetime dispensation and an appalling tragedy;
- The uncertainty and negative speculation around the issue of land reform is entirely the fault of the ANC as a result of its failure to address the matter over the past 20 years and its decision to capitulate to the incendiary populism of Julius Malema by endorsing the policy of expropriation without compensation.
For the ANC the chickens have come home to roost. During its so-called struggle years, the ANC never lost an opportunity to run to the UN and the US government to lodge protests about the apartheid government. Through its lobbying, it succeeded in having sanctions and disinvestment applied. Yet now that it is being exposed for failing to halt the ongoing murder of white farmers and for wanting to seize land without compensation, the ANC cries foul play. What comes around goes around.
When it suited the ANC, it promoted US interference in South Africa. Now the ANC must swallow the same medicine.
In noting the published reaction of opposition political parties, it is significant that only the Freedom Front Plus expressed a responsible and informed opinion about the possible consequences for South Africa in terms of the AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) agreement. The official opposition DA declined to comment (Daily News, August 23). Its silence on Trump’s critical concern makes one wonder.
Sent into The Daily News and published, 25 August 2018.
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