Adekeye Adebajo | Pretoria versus Washington: Trump’s white mischief

South Africa currently finds itself in a wrestling match with the white supremacist US administration of Donald Trump. This situation has been exacerbated by AfriForum and Solidarity delegations misrepresenting the plight of still privileged Afrikaners in Washington DC. Trump adviser, Elon Musk, has further stoked the fire by spreading lies of “white genocide” and “openly racist policies”.

Even during his first presidential term, Trump had accused the black government of confiscating white land, and talked of “large-scale killing of white farmers” (despite 69 murders a day in SA, a total of 26 white farmers were killed last year). Trump more recently cut off US aid to Pretoria (17 per cent of SA’s HIV/AIDS programme). After inaccurately accusing Pretoria of land grabs, he offered refugee status to supposedly oppressed Afrikaner farmers (8,200 applications have been received). This is a cynical ploy designed to preserve America’s white Christian majority for MAGA (Make America Great Again) cultists.

SA’s 2024 Expropriation Act seeks to redress past injustices: the 1913 Land Act had dispossessed the black majority by reserving 93 per cent of land for whites. Members of a nine per cent white minority still own 72 per cent of all private farmland. The purpose of the 2024 act is thus to use land for the public good while protecting private property rights. Any land seizures are subject to judicial review. Ruth Hall has insightfully noted, however, that the act has yet to address seriously the plight of the landless. Many black and white analysts have also criticised the government’s black economic empowerment policies as having largely benefited a small clique of ANC-connected business moguls. Max Du Preez has noted how Afrikaners benefited from similar affirmative action programmes under apartheid.

Last month, Washington expelled South African ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, for betraying his diplomatic calling by depicting Trump as leading a white supremacist movement. Though a former ambassador in Washington, Rasool, a pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist Muslim, was always a dead man walking: a poor choice for a profoundly nativist administration. Trump’s decision to send as ambassador to Pretoria, Leo Brent Bozell III, a rabidly pro-Israel right-wing media personality who previously described the ANC as “terrorists”, is a provocative signal that Washington has no intention of de-escalating this conflict.

America is SA’s second largest trading partner and its largest importer in sub-Saharan Africa. Pretoria’s response to Trump’s belligerence has thus been to offer a quixotic bilateral trade deal, send delegations to Washington DC to explain its policies, and seek to ensure a smooth handover of its current G20 chair to America in November. None of this has worked, because the real issue behind this diplomatic shadow boxing is that SA had the temerity to take staunch US ally, Israel, to the International Court of Justice last year, on charges of genocide in Gaza. Another Trump gripe is that Pretoria cooperated with its BRICS plus ally, Iran, on nuclear issues. As during the Joe Biden administration, American legislators are now seeking to sanction ANC leaders for these actions, as well as for its closeness to China – Pretoria’s largest trading partner – and Russia, with which Washington has started cooperating closely.

SA’s deputy justice minister, Andries Nel, would be an ideal choice to send to Washington DC as ambassador. Born in New Orleans to a diplomat father and married to African-American development consultant, Kim Robinson, this Afrikaner anti-apartheid lawyer could be trusted to represent the views of the majority of South Africans to America. Former Democratic Alliance leader, Tony Leon, in stark contrast, would be a Western Trojan horse. Nel may not change Trump’s mind, but could credibly argue Pretoria’s case. SA is correct to diversify its global commercial ties, while strengthening BRICS plus and intra-African trade. Harnessing the collective strength of the global South – where Pretoria is widely respected – is the only viable option to resist Trump’s white mischief.

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship in South Africa. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com