President Donald Trump has become a ray of hope, at least for white farmers in South Africa who fear their land could soon be confiscated without restitution. With land reform gaining momentum, some in South Africa believe that Trump’s influence might be their best chance to roll reform back.
For President Trump, South African land reform has become a rallying cry of sorts. This past August, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at the behest of President Trump, told Fox News that he was directed to “closely study the South African land farm seizures and expropriations and large-scale killing of farmers.” This gave rise to the accusation that white farmers are being systematically killed, which would likely constitute a genocidal act.
The fear of a race war has given rise to a movement of white South Africans, the Suidlanders, who believe that South Africa is heading towards an all but inevitable civil war. The group has grown to 130,000 members and has gained prominence in international circles. Apparently, the Suidlanders have an evacuation plan for white people, which would see them withdraw to refugee camps across rural South Africa.
The Institute of Security Studies (ISS) has slammed claims of genocide but doesn’t deny that many white farmers are caught up in violent crime. However, they claim that it’s just that: violent crimes. ISS has found that farm murders peaked in 2001, reaching 130 per year. Since then, the rate of murders has been cut in half.
In 2017-18, farm murders weighed in at 62. While this number is considerable, it also accounts for just .3 percent of the total 20,336 murders in South Africa during the given time frame. The Suidlanders claim that regardless, white farmers account for a disproportional amount of the murders, something that ISS also refutes.
Still, while white farmers and whites, in general, may not be the target of racial genocide, some extremist groups have been calling for armed action. The Economic Freedom Fighters, led by controversial Julius Malema, had been encouraging chants among his supporters, urging them to “Kill the Boer; Kill the Farmer.” He has since been charged for hate speech.
While there may not be an on-going genocide against white farmers, looming land reform could see much of their wealth and power greatly reduced. When the African National Congress came into power in 1994, land reform was one of their key promises. The government has pushed forward with some limited land reform efforts and now appears to be increasingly committed to advancing both the pace and breadth of reform.
Indeed, there may be enough support to push through the recommended section 25 amendment to the South African constitution. Section 25 would allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. Up until now, farmers have been compensated when their land has been seized.
Land reform is a hot-button issue. Many white farmers now own the land, but they accumulated it under apartheid, under which black South Africans were systemically discriminated against. Indeed, the Native Lands Act of 1913 stipulated that black farmers were forbidden from establishing new farming operations and sharecropping outside of special reserves. For white farmers during the apartheid, the board was tilted deeply in their favor.
It’s not hard to gain an economic advantage over a systemically oppressed group. In that light, land reform seems just. However, many white farmers will argue that they have invested a lot of time and capital into making that land productive, showing just how complex an issue land reform is.
