South Africa law at centre of Trump row challenged in court

A legal challenge against a controversial new land seizure law at the centre of a row with US President Donald Trump has been filed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), which is part of South Africa’s coalition government.

The Expropriation Act allows for private land to be seized by the government without compensation in certain cases.

Trump has frozen foreign aid to the country as a result, alleging that land is being confiscated already.

The government, which is made up of 10 parties led by the African National Congress (ANC), said the US president’s actions were based on “a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation”.

The ANC was forced into a power-sharing deal last year after losing its parliamentary majority, for the first time in three decades, in May’s general election.

The DA, which is the coalition’s second largest party, has called the Expropriation Act unconstitutional, arguing that no democratic government should be given powers to seize property without compensation.

The party said that South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa signed it into law against its advice.

Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa, with most private farmland owned by white people 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.

There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.

But in its argument against the Expropriation Act, the majority-white DA has said that the apartheid government used similar powers to remove native communities from their land and added that it wants to protect property rights for all South Africans.

“This history teaches us that true redress requires protecting property rights, ensuring that no government is ever given unchecked expropriation powers ever again,” the party said in a statement.

In a statement last week, the DA said that it was deeply concerned about the threat by Trump to halt funding.

The ANC said no land has been seized without compensation and added this would only happen in exceptional circumstances, such as if land was needed for public use and all other avenues to acquire the land had been exhausted.

Trump’s executive order over the weekend freezing aid said the US “cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country”.

It also said as long as South Africa “continues these unjust and immoral practices” then the US will not provide aid or assistance.

The White House said Washington will also formulate a plan to resettle South African farmers and their families as refugees.

It said US officials will take steps to prioritise humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.

President Ramaphosa has said he will send envoys to various countries to explain the government’s recent policy changes, including the Expropriation Act. – BBC