Trump's Bully Tweets

Putting a Stop To an Iniquity

According to the Daily Mail, the South African government has reversed its policy of compulsory acquisition of white owned farmland.  This has come as a complete surprise--out of the blue.  It is good news for South African farmers who were about to embark on a mass migration to other countries.  It is also good news for South Africa.  It may avoid falling into the economically collapsed dustbowl, Zimbabwe which has already expropriated farmland with reckless abandon.

What caused the u-turn?

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) said the bill passed by parliament in 2016 enabling the state to make compulsory purchases of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership needed further consideration.  It comes after Trump criticised the country's land reform plans in a tweet that touched on the overwhelmingly white ownership of farmland in South Africa - one of the most sensitive issues in the country's post-apartheid history.  [Emphasis, ours]

Trump's tweets are the electronic version of what used to be called the "Bully Pulpit".  Fox News had highlighted the immoral and unethical land theft, which can only be seen as a modern version of Jezebel's murderous expropriation of Naboth's vineyard.  Trump reacted:


🎂

The South African establishment reacted to Trump's announcement in turn.

South Africa's government reacted angrily to Trump's tweet with officials telling their American counterparts the comments were 'alarmist, false, inaccurate and misinformed'.

Mmm.  Alarmist.  False.  Inaccurate.  Misinformed.  Yet the policy was dumped like a hot potato.

As one local New Zealand columnist, Barry Soper put it:

Trump sent his tweet out last week after seeing an item on his favourite television channel, Fox News, about Pretoria's plan to speed up the land grab without compensating the farmers to redress racial imbalances in land ownership. Six days later the Government of Cyril Ramaphosa withdrew its white farmland redistribution bill.

The ruling African National Congress said the bill, passed two years ago, needed further consideration. It's not surprisingly seen as one of the most sensitive and divisive issues in post-apartheid South Africa - and something Nelson Mandela would never have envisaged nor would be have countenanced.  [NZ Herald]

 Things will doubtless continue to be difficult for white South African farmers.

White farmer killings in the republic occur virtually every week but with what amounts to the Government's seal of approval they'll get much worse, and like its neighbour to the north Zimbabwe, the country runs the risk of becoming an economic basket case.  Whites in that country already live in fortresses, New Zealand's Gallagher Group's electric fencing and security systems have made a fortune there.

Nevertheless, Trump's bully tweets have done some good, it would seem.  The blatant racism now emerging in South Africa bodes badly for the future.  Trump's actions might cause a re-think.  Stranger things have happened.