US President Donald Trump this morning turned his eye towards South Africa after a Fox News segment, anchored by Tucker Carlson, dipped its toes into the land expropriation debate.
“South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has just begun the process of seizing land from his own citizens, without compensation, purely due to their skin color,” the report’s description on YouTube reads.
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“That’s far more racist than anything Donald Trump has ever done, of course, but elites in America barely even care.”
Read more: Google searches for South Africa spike after Fox News video, Trump tweet
In the segment, Carlson laments the South African government for racial discrimination, questioning the country’s democracy, and questioning former US President Barack Obama for praising South Africa’s current President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Donald Trump, mentioning both Carlson and Fox News, weighed in with his thoughts.
Taking to Twitter (obviously), Trump alerted his 54-million followers that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will investigate “the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers”.
I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2018
The tweet didn’t go unnoticed, racking up more than 54 000 likes, 21 ooo retweets and more than 19 000 replies at the time of writing.
‘South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past’
#DonaldTrump also began trending across South Africa Thursday morning.
Apart from the usual vitriol, some engaging with Trump were South Africans airing their views.
“I don’t know why #DonaldTrump thinks he’s a mini god of the world…” wrote one user.
What #DonaldTrump forgot to tell the world is that some of these farm killings happen after farmers bring in black boys to have sex with them & then refuse to pay. Did he check #AdamCatsavelos video? #LandExpropriation pic.twitter.com/Uq3YCtwji4
— White Man Confession (@ConfessionWhite) August 23, 2018
#LandExpropriation I don’t know why #DonaldTrump thinks he’s a mini god of the world…
— Nkululeko Radebe
(@NkuleyRadebe) August 23, 2018
Until the media and the president of the USA know all the facts, they should stay out of our business and focus on getting rid of that unfit President who’s creating shit all over the world #donaldtrump #LandExpropriation
— Charlie Van Rooyen (@charlievanrooye) August 23, 2018
Other Twitter users supported Carlson’s views, and were encouraged by Trump’s call for an investigation.
If this goes ahead, I would support US sanctions against South Africa. Lets see how @CyrilRamaphosa and the @MYANC like it. It will be their voters who suffer. #LandExpropriation https://t.co/LxtAUCNubJ
— Will Scott (@guillum) August 23, 2018
A few highlighted the sensitive nature of the issue.
This land issue is extremely sensitive. Ask a Zimbabwean if you wanna know just how bad shit gets once you take back the land. It can never be a lateral move. #LandExpropriation
— barbz (@barbzbunnie) August 23, 2018
Some wondered if the country’s land expropriation system could benefit from awarding people government owned land instead.
South Africa has so much open land, why can’t the government do some #LandExpropriation on government owned land to give people land? Why should people who have invested so much time and effort into land have their livelihood taken away from them?
— Gareth David (@garethdavidza) August 23, 2018
The South African Government has also issued an official statement on Twitter, directly mentioning Donald Trump.
“South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past,” the thread began. “South Africa will speed up the pace of land reform in a careful and inclusive manner that does not divide our nation.”
South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past. #landexpropriation @realDonaldTrump @PresidencyZA
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) August 23, 2018
South Africa will speed up the pace of land reform in a careful and inclusive manner that does not divide our nation. #landexpropriation @realDonaldTrump @PresidencyZA
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) August 23, 2018
This isn’t the first time South Africans have scritinised Donald Trump’s comments this year.
In January, the US President came under fire for allegedly referring to a number of African countries and Haiti as “shithole” countries in a meeting with Oval Office staff. Trump later responded that it was “not the language [he] used”.
Feature image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped)
