Zimbabwe’s government has agreed to pay $3.5 billion to white farmers displaced during a violent “land redistribution” program started two decades ago, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Wednesday.
South Africa slid into an official recession Tuesday. The main culprit was a sharp contraction in the agricultural sector, which has been under political assault this year as the ruling African National Congress has pledged “expropriation without compensation.”
Forbes magazine contributor Lorenzo Montanari notes in a recent op-ed that President Donald Trump’s tweet about South Africa’s new policy of “expropriation without compensation” has exposed that land reform policy as a Venezuela-style scam.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) appeared to walk back ambitious proposals for “expropriation without compensation” — for the moment — as a result of a controversial tweet by President Donald Trump.
Media reactions in South Africa to President Donald Trump’s tweet last week about land reform and farm murders were overwhelmingly negative. However, some columnists are beginning to conclude that Trump did the country a favor.
The South African government has launched an international “charm offensive” to reassure foreign investors after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted last week that his administration would study South Africa’s controversial new land reform policy.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has announced her backing of the controversial South African proposal to strip farmers of their land without compensation as long as the process is done in a “legal” manner.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has written an op-ed in the Financial Times defending his country’s proposed new “expropriation without compensation” policy on land reform after criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump last week.
Radical South African politician Julius Malema confirmed President Donald Trump’s concerns Thursday, declaring defiantly that the point of the country’s proposed new “expropriation without compensation” policy would be to take land from white farmers.
President Donald Trump’s comments on South Africa on Wednesday evening burst the bubble of political correctness that has long shielded that country’s leaders from responsibility for self-destructive policies that have hurt black and white South Africans alike.
The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), a liberal think tank, endorsed President Donald Trump’s criticism of that country’s new land reform policy on Thursday, saying that the U.S. president had exposed the “damage” the policy was doing.
South African news sources reported Sunday that the government had begun taking farmland without compensation with the attempted expropriation of two game farms in Limpopo, the country’s northernmost province, home to Kruger National Park.
